.  •    -,  . 


BANCROFT 
LIBRARY 

O 

THE  LIBRARY 

OF 

THE  UNIVERSITY 
OF  CALIFORNIA 


SUE   CHUG 


BY 

D.  R.  C. 

AUTHOR  OF 

LUI  SING,"   "THE  FLIGHT  OF  AN  ARROW,' 

"POPPY  PETALS,"  "CHUMS," 

"FAITH-HOPE" 


THE  CORNHILL  COMPANY 
BOSTON 


PZs 


Copyright,  1913,  by 

D.  R.  C. 

1918,  by 

THE  CORNHILL  COMPANY 


: 


•Ml  LMV/ 


CHAPTER  I 


jHE  last  orders  had  been  given  by 
the  shrill-voiced  old  Chinese  wo 
man.  Sue  Chuc  had  submissively 
bowed  low  many  times  and 
watched  the  departure  of  old  Mai 
den  and  beautiful  Luck-do,  the 
latter  a  small- footed,  gorgeously  arrayed  new  ar 
rival  in  the  Quarter,  as  she  hobbled  on  her  three- 
inch  feet  and  leaned  on  Mai-den's  arm.  As  the 
door  closed  upon  them,  Sue's  breath  came  more 
regularly  and  her  broad,  flat  face,  that  had  naught 
of  beauty  save  its  clear,  dark,  and  most  round  and 
un-Chinese  eyes,  lost  the  strained  look  it  habitually 
wore  in  the  presence  of  her  hard  taskmistress, 
Mai-den. 

After  a  second  she  tiptoed  to  one  of  the  two 
windows  looking  out  on  the  narrow  street  two 
floors  below  and,  opening  the  creaking  window, 
leaned  perilously  far  out.  Yes,  there  they  were, 
she  could  just  discern  the  pearl-embroidered  head 
dress  of  Luck-do  and,  by  the  sudden  stopping  of 
the  passers-by,  realize  that  the  apparition  of  the 


2  SUE    CHUC 

bit  of  femininity  in  the  dank,  noisome  street  was 
creating  the  usual  sensation. 

With  a  long  sigh,  Sue  at  last  brought  her  body 
back  to  equilibrium  and  safety  and  was  turning 
her  attention  to  the  first  of  the  many  duties  laid 
out  for  her,  when  a  thought  came  to  her,  a 
thought  that  in  its  awful  boldness  seemed  surely 
sent  only  of  the  devil,  the  particular  devil  sup 
posed  to  be  lying  in  wait  for  the  faltering  steps 
of  small  slave  girls,  and  she  glanced  hastily  to 
wards  the  niche  where  burned  an  incense  stick 
before  a  closed  shrine. 

Then,  as  the  thought  persisted  and  with  it  came 
flashes  of  inspiration  showing  how  easy,  oh,  how 
very  easy  it  would  be  to  turn  it  into  a  reality,  her 
knees  trembled  and  her  hand  instinctively  sought 
support  for  the  weak  body  and  found  it  in  clutch 
ing  at  a  pile  of  clothing  that  hung  upon  a  rack 
close  at  hand. 

Her  eyes  followed  the  direction  of  her  hand 
and  rested  upon  a  pale  apple  green  coat  with  ap 
plique  of  scrolls  and  wreaths  of  blossoms;  upon 
trousers  of  amber;  on  head-dress  of  embroidered 
velvet  —  one  of  the  many  suits  tried  on  Luck-do 
before  one  that  quite  suited  her  had  been  selected. 

She  held  tightly  to  the  folds  whilst  she  let  her 
mind  dwell  upon  that  awful,  heavenly  thought 
and  a  light  of  determination  grew  in  the  beauti- 


SUE    CHUG  3 

ful  un-Chinese  eyes.  At  last  with  a  quick  move 
ment  she  crossed  the  room,  gathered  up  her  vari 
ous  utensils  for  cleaning  and,  opening  the  door 
between  the  front  room  and  the  back,  flung  them 
into  the  corner,  not  looking  to  see  where  they  had 
fallen,  although  there  had  come  an  ominous  sound 
of  splintering  glass.  Then  locking  the  door  lead 
ing  into  the  hall  she  gathered  together  the  para 
phernalia  of  an  elaborate  toilet  and  began  carry 
ing  out  that  mad,  devil-sent  idea. 

Never  since  her  babyhood  had  her  body  felt 
such  cool  soft  washes,  such  scented  powders. 
Never  had  the  fine  hair  been  so  well  oiled  with 
jasmine-flower  oil  whose  fragrance  made  her 
brain  reel.  One  after  the  other  she  slipped  on 
the  beautiful  garments,  until  she  stood  completely 
dressed,  only  her  feet  still  unshod.  The  small 
shoes  of  Luck-do  were  an  impossibility;  old  Mai 
den,  to  whom  with  stoutness  and  middle  age,  had 
come  freedom,  wore  shoes  as  much  too  large 
as  the  others  were  small. 

What,  oh  what  should  she  do?  As  though 
by  having  given  way  to  that  first  impulse,  a  whole 
legion  of  others  had  been  encouraged  to  find  rest 
ing-place  in  her  heart,  —  a  voice  whispered,  she 
was  quite  certain  that  she  heard  it  distinctly  say: 
"Take  some  money  from  the  green  bowl,  send 
Fun  to  Gen-dow's  to  buy  you  a  pair,  the  pair  you 


4  SUE    CHUC 

looked  at  in  the  window  only  last  night  as  you 
came  home  from  market." 

Pattering  across  the  floor  in  stocking-feet,  she 
unlocked  the  door,  looking  to  right  and  left  saw 
that  the  dark  hall  was  empty,  slipped  into  a  pair 
of  straw  sandals  and  stole  softly  to  the  room 
opposite  where  she  found  Fun  just  recovering 
from  a  more  than  usually  comforting  night  of 
poppy-engendered  dreams.  To  him  she  rapidly 
unfolded  her  plans.  Would  he  help  her,  would 
he  go  for  the  shoes? 

Yes,  Fun  would  help  her;  his  clouded  eyes 
even  looked  admiration  and  awe  at  her  and  the 
bread  she  had  cast  so  often  upon  the  waters  came 
back  to  her  now.  Had  she  not  given  him  of  her 
own  not  always  too  plentiful  meals  many  times 
and  oft,  that  he  might  not  have  to  choose  be 
tween  poppy  dreams  and  sheer  starvation?  Yes, 
he  would  get  those  slippers. 

She  repeated  the  directions  to  him  again  and,  in 
breathless  anxiety,  awaited  his  return.  A  half-hour 
went  by.  The  seconds  seemed  hours  and  the  min 
utes  eternities  until  she  heard  his  stumbling  steps. 
He  had  the  slippers — and  something  else,  a  great 
bundle  which  he  explained  to  her  was  clothes  that 
he  had  pawned  to  a  friend  many  moons  ago  and 
borrowed  back  for  the  day,  for  he  was  going  to 
join  her  in  her  day's  frolic  and  must  do  her  proud. 


SUE    CHUC  5 

She  looked  at  him  in  amazement — he  had  been 
washed  and  shaved,  his  thick  hair  freshly  braided 
and,  although  the  face  was  wasted  and  waxen,  it 
was  not  the  old  face  of  Fun,  but  of  a  man  who 
might  have  been  his  son. 

He  smiled  his  kindly  smile  at  her  and  told  her 
to  go  and  get  ready,  that  he  would  join  her  in  a 
very  short  time  and  they  would  walk  to  the  corner 
and  take  the  Clay  street  car. 

In  the  three  years  since  her  landing  in  San 
Francisco  she  had  been  just  once  outside  of  the 
Quarter  where  her  home  was  and  always  had  she 
been  haunted  by  the  memory  of  that  wonderful 
day. 

As  she  and  Fun  came  out  into  the  sunlight  and 
stood  for  a  moment  waiting  for  the  car,  she 
glanced  at  him.  Was  it,  could  it  be  Fun?  Yes, 
that  smile  could  belong  to  none  other,  it  had 
cheered  her  too  often  through  the  long  months  of 
those  three  years  when  her  spirit  and  body  alike 
seemed  on  the  point  of  utter  rebellion.  But  she 
had  thought  him  an  old  man,  why  as  much  as 
thirty-five  or  forty,  and  he  was  years  younger.  She 
felt  shy  and  sat  quiet  as  the  car  started  up  the  long 
hill. 

Fun  glanced  at  her  several  times  and  at  last 
breaking  the  silence  pointed  out  to  her  the  points 
of  interest,  for  he  was  a  son  of  the  Golden  West, 


6  SUE    CHUC 

sadly  fallen  from  his  high  estate,  to  be  sure,  but 
in  the  intervals  when  the  poppy  dreams  did  not 
call  he  was  very  proud  of  his  City  and  State. 

She  knew  he  had  been  to  the  big  school  and  was 
looked  upon  as  a  learned  man  in  the  Quarter,  but 
of  the  reasons  for  his  downfall  and  of  the  utter 
extinction  of  ambition  and  desire  she  knew  naught. 

Many  times  they  "transferred"  and  finally  they 
arrived  at  the  beach,  bought  food  and,  sitting  down 
where  they  were  protected  from  the  wind  and 
could  look  over  the  sparkling  sunlit  waters,  they 
had  their  luncheon. 

"Sue,  how  came  you  to  do  this?"  he  asked. 

And  she  told  him  how,  as  she  had  looked  at  the 
disappearing  head-dress  of  Luck-do,  she  had  been 
filled  with  despair  and  loneliness — then  the 
thought  and  its  execution.  Was  it  very  awful? 
Yes,  she  knew  it  was,  but  they  could  do  no  more 
than  kill  her,  and  at  any  rate  for  one  day  she 
would  have  lived. 

"When  do  you  expect  them  back?"  he  asked. 

"To-morrow.  It  is  to  the  city  across  the  water 
they  have  gone.  Mai-den  has  taken  Luck-do  to 
show  her  to  a  very  rich  man  who  wants  a  small- 
footed  wife.  She  is  beautiful !"  she  added  warmly. 

"You  like  her?"  he  asked. 

"Oh,  yes,  I  love  her." 

"And  Mai-den?" 


SUE    CHUC  7 

She  winced  and  the  great  eyes  dimmed. 

He  took  the  small,  roughened  hand  in  his  and 
looked  at  the  palm,  looked  long,  and  at  last  com 
pared  the  two  hands  and  glanced  up  into  her  face, 
keenest  interest  written  on  his  own. 

"What  do  you  know,  Sue,  of  yourself?" 

"Not  very  much,"  she  told  him,  "only  that  when 
I  was  a  baby  my  mother  and  father  died  in  the 
great  sickness  and  an  aunt  of  Mai-den's  took  me 
and  brought  me  up  as  her  servant.  But  I  can  re 
member  something,  Fun," 

"Yes— what?" 

"I  can  remember  a  lady  like  the  ones  we  saw  on 
the  car  just  now  who  used  to  put  me  on  her  knees 
and  play  with  me.  Mai  says  it  was  one  of  the 
Mission  ladies  at  home." 

"Do  you  know  how  old  you  are,  Sue?" 

"Sixteen,  Mai  says." 

"You  are  such  a  tiny  thing  I  thought  you  were 
not  over  twelve,  if  that." 

"Fun,  they  say  you  speak  English  as  well  as 
the  English  born  and  that  you  speak  some  other 
tongues,  too — do  you?" 

"Yes,  but  I  am  foreign-born.  I  have  never  been 
in  China.  Once  I  thought  I  should  go  back  there 
when  I  was  a  man,  and  teach.  I  was  going  to 
be  a  physician." 

"What  made  you  give  it  up,  Fun?" 


8  SUE    CHUC 

He  rose  from  the  sand  without  answering, 
flicked  off  the  crumbs,  and  holding  out  his  hand 
said,  with  the  familiar  expression: 

"Come,  little  one,  we  will  go  to  the  Park  and 
then  down  to  the  city  and  you  shall  see  the  big 
foreign  stores,  then  we  will  go  to  dinner  and  to 
the  theatre.  You  shall  have  one  royal  time  if  you 
never  have  another." 

As  he  spoke  he  grew  suddenly  gray,  beads  of 
perspiration  sprang  to  his  forehead  and  he  wiped 
them  away. 

Sue  noticed  and  recognized  the  symptoms. 
"You're  going  to  be  sick  if  you  don't  take  it,"  she 
said,  nodding  wisely. 

He  laughed  ruefully  and  took  a  pellet  from  a 
small  box  and  swallowed  it.  As  they  strolled  to 
the  car  he  said : 

"Have  you  ever  used  it,  Sue?" 

"No,  I  tried  it  once  and  it  made  me  sick  and 
I  shall  never  try  it  again." 

"Wish  I  could  say  the  same,"  he  answered. 

They  went  through  the  Museum,  then  newly  es 
tablished  in  the  Park,  went  downtown  and  through 
the  big  stores,  and,  as  the  day  ended,  up  into  the 
restaurant  of  renown  in  the  Quarter  and  afterward 
to  the  theatre.  At  one  o'clock,  tired  to  the  point 
of  exhaustion,  but  happy,  Sue  pressed  Fun's  hand 
in  good-night  and  unlocked  her  own  door. 


SUE   CHUC  9 

It  was  nearly  morning  before  she  had  the  rooms 
straightened,  everything  that  she  had  worn,  folded 
and  put  back  into  place,  and  laid  herself,  too  tired 
for  sleep,  on  the  folded  quilts  that  made  her  bed, 
wondering  and  wondering  how  she  should  pay  back 
those  three  dollars  she  had  spent  for  the  shoes 
and  what  she  should  do  with  the  shoes ! 

She  had  decided  to  pawn  the  shoes  and  to  beg 
the  woman  on  the  floor  above  to  let  her  earn 
money  embroidering  for  her  when  Mai  was  away, 
which  happened  often  now,  when  at  last,  as  the 
sun  rose,  her  heavy  lids  closed  and  she  slept. 


Fun,  whose  name  in  full  was  Ah-day-Fun, 
stripped  off  his  clothes,  replaced  them  with  the  old 
ones,  made  the  package  compact  and,  putting  it 
under  his  arm,  went  down  the  stairs  and  into  the 
street. 

Instinctively  he  turned  towards  the  accustomed 
place  and  at  the  entrance  to  a  particularly  black 
and  evil-smelling  alley  he  stopped  a  second  to  listen 
to  voices  that  came  from  the  room  above  the  en 
trance  and,  in  one  of  those  queer,  kaleidoscopic 
memory  flashes,  he  saw  a  rugged-faced,  kindly- 
eyed  man  and  heard  the  resonant  voice  saying: 

uMy  boy,  I  am  pleased  with  you.  I  believe  in 
a  great  future  for  you ;  of  all  my  pupils,  you  have 


io  SUE    CHUC 

shown  most  the  possession  of  the  qualities  that 
make  for  success.  I  approve  of  the  choice  of  life- 
work  you  have  made.  Good-bye,  and  may  the 
dear  God  bless  you." 

Fun  shivered  and  for  a  perceptible  second  hes 
itated,  then  shuffled  under  the  archway  and  the 
black  shadows  hid  him. 


CHAPTER   II 


|HE  following  day  Mai-den  returned 
alone  and,  in  her  pleasure  at  the 
bargain  she  had  made  and  in  her 
absorption  in  her  plans  for  getting 
over  one,  two,  perhaps  three  girls 
by  fall,  she  noticed  no  change  in 
the  small  servant,  saw  not  the  sudden  palings  and 
flushings,  the  tremors  of  the  thin  body  and  the 
apprehension  in  the  big  eyes,  even  made  no 
comment  upon  the  broken  glass  fruit  jar;  and 
when  her  several  cronies  came  in  to  congratulate 
her  upon  her  success,  served  tea  and  cakes  and 
sweets  as  usual. 

One  pair  of  sharp  black  eyes,  however,  rested 
more  than  once  upon  the  face  of  little  Sue  and 
each  time  with  a  look  of  interest. 

"Have  you  heard,"  she  said,  speaking  loudly, 
uthat  there  is  a  new  face  in  the  Quarter?" 

"Yes,  Ah-day-Fun  was  seen  with  a  girl  whose 
embroidered  coat  looked  as  though  the  fairies  had 
worked  it;  whose  trousers,  as  though  the  bees  had 
woven  of  their  honey  to  make  the  stuff;  whose 
head-band  was  milky  with  the  pearls  upon  it." 


12  SUE    CHUC 

"Ah-day-Fun?    You  joke!" 

"Nay,  'tis  true — they  were  seen  on  the  corner 
to  take  a  car  going  heavenward,  and  at  Chan-Yep's 
eating,  later." 

Mai-den  shrugged  fat  shoulders.  "Once  it 
might  have  been,  but  he  is  far  gone  now  in  the 
poppy's  clutch.  'Tis  someone's  dream;  there  are 
those  who  dream,  waking,  ofttimes,"  and  she 
looked  significantly  at  the  other  with  a  half  smile 
of  contempt. 

The  sharp  black  eyes  dulled  and  the  face  was 
masklike,  but  Mai-den  then  and  there  lost  her 
chance  forever  to  know  the  story  of  Sue's  day. 

Sue  had  heard  both  remarks,  had  stood  frozen 
with  horror  and  fear,  until,  daring  to  glance  at 
the  other  woman  after  Mai's  contemptuous  reply, 
she  saw  the  eyes  narrow  and  the  face  settle  into 
inexpressiveness.  Then  in  a  moment  she  knew 
that  she  was  safe. 

As  the  women  left,  whilst  Mai  was  busy  giving 
directions  to  one  of  the  others,  Chul-fen  spoke 
rapidly  and  softly  to  Sue. 

"Come  to  me,  child,  when  next  you  are  free." 

She  had  pawned  the  slippers,  had  put  back  the 
dollar  obtained  and  was  prayerfully  waiting  a 
chance  to  earn  the  other  two.  Two  months  had 
flown  since  her  outing.  She  had  not  seen  Fun  in 
all  that  time.  Often  had  her  thoughts  dwelt  on 


SUE    CHUC  13 

the  blissful  day,  often  had  she  dared  to  dream 
dreams  and  see  visions  wherein  such  days  figured; 
always  was  there  a  little  catch  at  her  heart  when 
she  thought  of  Fun,  of  the  sad,  kind  smile  and 
of  his  gentleness  to  her.  A  dim  inkling  of  his 
tragedy  came  to  her  and  a  strong  desire  to  help 
him.  Often  and  often  had  she  stolen  across  the 
narrow  hallway  to  see  if  he  had  returned,  always 
to  meet  with  disappointment  until,  one  afternoon 
nine  weeks  since  she  had  seen  him,  she  opened  his 
door  and  found  him  sitting  at  the  table  by  the 
window,  writing. 

She  ran  to  him  crying  out  joyfully  and  he  turned 
to  meet  her  with  eagerness,  then,  as  she  saw  him 
plainly,  she  hesitated,  stopped  and  stood  astounded. 

"No,  Sue,  it  is  I  in  the  flesh,  not  a  ghost.'7 

"Have — have  you  been  sick?"  she  faltered, 
hardly  daring  to  believe  him,  as  he  asserted,  in  the 
flesh. 

"Yes,  Sue,  body,  mind,  and  soul."  His  voice 
was  weak  but  vibrant,  and  under  the  waxen  pallor 
showed  a  something  of  renewal,  that  intangible 
thing  that  one  sees  in  the  face  of  one  who  has 
been  at  the  very  gates  of  death  and  has  not  passed 
through.  She  noticed  that  he  was  clean  shaven 
and  dressed  in  fresh  clothes.  Instinctively  she 
glanced  down  at  her  own  limp  and  rusty  black  coat 
and  trousers,  the  servant's  uniform. 


I4  SUE    CHUC 

"Have  you  missed  me,  Sue — did  Mai-den  find 
out  anything  ?" 

"Yes,  I  have  missed  you.  No,  Mai-den  hasn't 
discovered  anything,  but  Chul-fen  has;  I'm  not 
afraid  of  her,  though,  she  is  kind.  But,  Fun,  tell 
me — tell  me  what  has  happened  to  you — I  can  stay 
a  long  time,  Mai  is  gone  out  and  my  work  is 
done." 

"Sit  down  here,  Sue,  where  I  can  see  you,"  and 
he  placed  her  on  a  chair  by  the  window. 

"Sue,  can  you  understand  what  it  means  to  be 
born  again?" 

Sue  nodded,  "Yes."  That  was  one  of  her  pet 
dreams  and  many  a  lonely  hour  had  she  spent 
making  plans  as  to  the  conditions  that  wonderful 
re-birth  was  to  place  her  in. 

"Can  you?" — his  tone  held  wonder.  Yes,  those 
great  eyes  held  faint  memories  of  re-birth,  memor 
ies  so  faint  that  they  came  only  as  barely  formu 
lated  desire  now. 

"Well,  Sue,  I  have  been  born  again.  I  think 
there  is  nothing  left  of  the  old  Fun  you  knew,  ex 
cept  his  affection  for  the  kind  little  friend  who 
gave  so  generously  to  him" — his  voice  faltered  and 
his  eyes  looked  off  into  space  whilst  Sue  held  her 
breath. 

"Sue,  you  remember  asking  me  out  on  the  beach 
that  day  if  what  they  said  of  me  was  true — if  I 


SUE    CHUC  15 

had  gone  to  the  big  school  and  had  intended  to 
make  much  of  my  life?" 

Sue  nodded,  "Yes,"  she  remembered  very  well. 

"Well,  the  man  who  had,  once  in  that  time  so 
long  ago,  felt  confidence  in  my  future  and  in  my 
ability  to  do  a  big  and  fine  work  in  the  world,  has 
brought  me  up  from  the  very  gates  of  death,  has 
once  more  said  to  me,  'Fun,  I  trust  you  to  do 
that  work  we  had  planned/  And  Sue,  Sue" — the 
voice  broke  but  the  tone  held  gladness — "I  feel 
that  I  shall  not  disappoint  him." 

Sue's  eyes  had  filled  and  the  queer  catch  at  her 
heart  had  come  again.  Fun  going  to  do  the  work 
he — why  that  meant — she  would  see  him  no  more, 
the  room  across  the  hall  would  be  vacant,  the  kind 
smile  that  had  been  her  one  bit  of  sunshine  would 
vanish  from  her  life  and — here  a  feeling  of  utter 
desolation  took  possession  of  her  and  putting  her 
head  down  on  her  bowed  arms,  she  wept. 

"Sue,  Sue,  what  is  it — are  you  sorry  that  I  am 
going  away?  Why,  child,  do  not  weep  so  de 
spairingly,  I  am  not  going  without  you." 

Sue's  sobs  ceased,  she  raised  a  tear  flooded  face 
with  eyes  like  mist-covered  stars,  and  sat  motion 
less,  almost  breathless. 

"Yes,  Sue,  I  am  going  to  buy  you  from  Mai 
den,  send  you  to  school,  and  in  a  few  years  you 
shall  come  to  China  with  me  and  we  will  take  up 
the  work  together.  I  will  be  father,  mother,  and 


1 6  SUE   CHUC 

brother  to  you,  and  you  will  be  everything  in  life 
to  me,  outside  of  my  work." 

"But  tell  me,  tell  me  it  all,  Fun." 

He  took  a  stool  and  brought  it  up  to  the  window 
whose  panes,  undisturbed  of  the  dust  of  years, 
softened  the  light  of  the  hot  California  sun  which, 
on  this  third  floor  of  the  house,  so  far  above  the 
narrow  tunnel  of  the  street,  fell  in  undeflected 
beams.  His  thin  hands,  finely  shaped  and  now 
scrupulously  clean,  rested  on  the  table-edge  and 
little  Sue,  at  sight  of  them,  put  her  own  small  red 
and  roughened  ones  under  the  piece  of  sacking 
that  hung  straight  from  the  pins  that  held  it  to 
the  folds  of  her  gown  and  served  as  apron.  The 
man,  sensitive  to  impressions  and  with  the  quick 
ness  of  such  natures,  guessed  the  reason  of  her 
motion  and  said: 

"Let  me  see  the  hands,  Sue." 

She  shook  her  head  and  the  great  eyes  dimmed. 

"Yes,"  he  insisted. 

Slowly  she  drew  them  forth  and  more  slowly  ex 
tended  them.  He  took  them  in  his  and  turned 
them  palms  upward,  looking  carefully  at  them  as 
he  had  done  that  day  on  the  beach. 

"Do — do  you  see  anything  there?"  she  queried. 

After  a  moment's  silence  he  spoke,  asking,  "Sue, 
do  you  know  that  your  father  and  mother  were 
Chinese?" 


SUE    CHUC  17 

A  flush  stole  into  her  pale  cheeks.  "Oh — oh,  do 
you  think  I  am  foreign?" 

"I  don't  know,  child,  but  I  think  you  have  for 
eign  blood  in  your  veins." 

A  tide  of  emotion  swept  over  her,  the  slender 
body  trembled,  and  in  one  burst  of  vehemence  she 
poured  forth  her  hatred,  disgust,  and  fear  of  the 
race  that,  up  to  that  moment,  she  had  thought  to 
be  her  own. 

Seeing  the  storm  his  questions  had  raised,  he 
thought  it  well  to  let  it  run  its  course  and  only 
when  she  had  cleared  her  heart  of  its  burden  of 
stored-up  emotion  and  the  very  spring  of  her 
speech  had  run  dry  did  he  speak;  then,  as  she 
put  her  head  down  on  the  dusty  table  and  wept 
unrestrainedly,  he  said: 

"We  both,  I  think,  Sue,  have  the  white  streak" 
— then  there  came  to  him  a  memory  from  out  the 
years,  a  young,  eager  voice  in  passionate  pleading, 
saying,  "But,  fellers,  I  tell  you  Fun  is  white! 
white  clear  through,  if  he  is  a  Chinaman.  There 
is  not  a  bit  of  'yellow  streak'  in  him — I  know!" 
and  he  smiled  sadly.  The  years  since  seemed  to 
have  proved  his  youthful  champion  in  the  wrong, 
but — the  past  was  the  past,  to-day  was  at  hand 
with  promises  of  a  to-morrow  when  that  "he's  all 
white,  I  tell  you !"  might  be  a  truth. 

Sue's  sobs  had  ceased  and  she  was  fumbling 


1 8  SUE    CHUC 

for  the  bit  of  paper  that  served  as  handkerchief, 
when  he  spoke: 

"The  night  I  said  good-bye  to  you,  Sue,  I  went 
to  take  back  the  clothes  to  my  friend  and  I  intended 
to  do  as  I  was  in  the  habit  of  doing — have  a  few 
pipes  before  I  came  home.  You  know  where  the 
place  is?" 

She  nodded. 

"As  I  went  under  the  archway  I  heard  voices 
in  the  room  above  and  one  of  them  was  so  like 
that  of  a  man  I  once  knew  that  I  stopped  a  mo 
ment  and  almost  gave  up  going  further — almost," 
he  added  dryly,  "not  quite,  and  there  is  once  that 
a  good  impulse  almost  thwarted  at  its  birth,  bore 
good  fruit;  strange,  that — "  he  mused,  then,  with 
a  second's  further  hesitation,  continued. 

"That  night  a  man  died  in — you  know  the 
place,  and  a  woman  killed  him.  Yes,  a  white 
woman.  The  man  was  Chinese.  There  was  a 
disturbance  and  little  Joo-fan  ran  to  tell  us  the 
police  were  coming. 

"The  woman  had  fainted  after  she  had  realized 
what  she  had  done,  and  lay  on  the  floor.  The 
other  there  ran  and  got  away,  but  I  could  not 
leave  her  so — and — well,  I  stayed ;  that  was  white, 
Sue?"  he  asked.  She  did  not  quite  understand  the 
question,  but  she  recognized  a  desire  for  confirma 
tion  in  the  tone  of  it,  and  nodded. 


SUE    CHUC  19 

He  gave  a  long  sigh — "Yes,  that  was  white. 

"Well,  the  police  came  and  sent  the  dead  body 
of  the  man  away  and  sent  us,  that  white  woman 
and  me,  to  the  jail.  I  had  sworn  that  I  knew  noth 
ing  about  the  facts  beyond  the  one  of  having  been 
awakened  by  the  noise  after  the  murder  was  done. 
The  woman  was  not  suspected  and  it  was  supposed 
that  the  murderer  got  away  amongst  the  crowd 
that  had  fled.  Anyway,  a  dead  Chinaman  more 
or  less — what  of  it?  Especially  as  there  was  no 
money  to  be  got  by  discovering  his  murderer  and 
much  hush  money  to  be  lost  by  undue  exertion 
bringing  the  eye  of  that  awful  public  to  bear  upon 
the  Quarter.  So  the  woman  and  I  were  let  out, 
no  evidence  to  point  to  our  being  anything  but 
victims  of  circumstances.  The  woman  had  not 
said  a  word  from  first  to  last,  only  shivered  and 
shaken  and  wept." 

"Where  is  she?"  Sue  asked.  Something  in  her 
voice  made  him  look  at  her  intently. 

"She  is  now  in  a  hospital  being  treated  for  the 
cocaine  and  morphine  habit,  and,  Sue,  I've  just 
come  out  of  one." 

She  nodded,  "Yes,  you  have  not  had  anything 
for  a  long  time.  Are  you  going  to  smoke  to-day?" 

"No,  nor  to-morrow — nor  ever — little  one,  do 
you  hear?  Never,  never!"  and  his  voice  had  the 


20  SUE    CHUC 

note  of  victory  she  had  noticed  in  it  before, 
through  all  of  its  weakness  the  vibrant  note. 

"Did  you  stop  for  her?"  she  asked. 

"For  her?  the  white  woman!  no,  child,  she  is 
nothing  to  me.  I  had  never  seen  her  before  that 
night,  I  may  never  see  her  again." 

Just  the  faintest  perceptible  sigh  lifted  the  sack 
ing  stretched  across  Sue's  chest  and  she  softly  with 
drew  her  hands  which  he  had  held  as  he  talked. 

He  started — "My  story  is  not  very  clear,  is  it 
Sue?" 

"Shall  I  make  you  some  tea?"  she  asked,  noting 
his  increase  of  pallor.  "Mai  is  out  for  a  long  time; 
I  can  do  it  easily." 

"Will  you?" 

She  busied  herself  going  out  for  some  lighted 
charcoal  for  the  firebox,  filling  the  kettle,  getting 
out  the  chipped  teapot  and  cups  and  washing  them. 
She  made  the  tea  strong  and  served  it  to  him 
steaming,  saw  that  he  drank  several  cups,  and  then 
again  took  her  seat  at  the  table. 

It  was  noticeable  that  in  everything  she  did 
there  was  an  intelligence  shown,  a  something  of 
distinction  in  the  grace  of  her  movements,  the  in 
describable  shade  of  manner  that  distinguished  her 
and  made  her  noticed  with  a  sort  of  distrust  by 
her  countrywomen.  So  surely  does  the  essence  of 
difference  affect  the  feeling  of  those  we  contact. 


SUE   CHUG  21 

"Now  you  can  tell  me  some  more,"  she  said 
at  last,  and  he  took  up  his  story. 

"The  two  days  and  nights  I  was  in  jail,  I  could 
not  get  the  sound  of  my  old  friend's  voice  out  of 
my  ears  and  when  I  got  out  I  went  up  to  the  old 
address.  I  had  not  seen  or  heard  of  him  in  years 
and  found  he  had  only  that  day  returned  from 
China,  where  he  had  been  on  a  mission  for  the 
Government. 

"He  saw  me  immediately,  busy  as  he  was,  and — 
and  took  me  home  and  stayed  with  me  day  and 
night  for  three  weeks.  Sometime,  Sue,  I  will 
tell  you  of  the  things  we  talked  of,  what  he  told 
me,  and  how  he  helped  me  to  win  out  from  hell. 

"He  has  given  me  money  to  get  my  equipment 
and  after  I  have  found  a  school  for  you  I  shall 
go  to  New  York  and  prepare  for  my  work  in 
China.  I  told  him  of  you  and  he  said  he  would 
find  means  to  put  you  under  Miss  Cameron's  care 
if  I  could  not  succeed  in  buying  you  from  Mai 
den. 

"You  can  buy  me,  cheap"  Sue  said,  her  voice 
trembling.  "I  heard  her  tell  Luck-do  that  I  was 
so  ugly  she  couldn't  ever  expect  to  make  anything 
out  of  me  and  that  she  did  not  like  me  around 
anyway,  she  had  to  burn  too  many  joss  sticks  to 
turn  off  the  evil  eye ;  it  was  a  bother." 

"Ugly!— you!"  he  said. 


22  SUE    CHUC 

"Child,  child — I  am  not  making  fun!" — he  had 
sensed  her  fear  of  his  ridicule — "only  it  came  as  a 
surprise  to  me  that  you  were  called  ugly,  your 
eyes  are  so  wonderful  one  thinks  only  of  them." 

"When  will  you  speak  to  Mai?  Oh,  do  you 
mean  it — may  I  learn  the  foreign  language  well? 
I  can  speak  it  a  little  you  know,  and  shall  I  have 
books  like  Chan-dow's  children  who  go  to  the 
foreign  school,  and  shall  I  wear  foreign  clothes, 
with  a  hat?" 

"Yes,  you  shall  do  all  of  that,  and  if  you  study 
hard  and  if  you  want  greatly  to  help  me,  you  will 
later  go  to  college  and,  when  you  have  finished, 
join  me  and  we  will  go  to  China  and  teach  and 
heal,  and — who  knows,  Sue,  maybe  some  day  we 
can  prove  that  we  are  all  white — no  yellow 
streak." 


CHAPTER    III 


AI-DEN  had  proved  more  difficult 
to  manage  than  was  to  be  supposed 
under  the  circumstances  and  when 
her  demands  for  money  amounted 
to  blackmail,  Fun,  at  the  end  of  his 
patience  and  money,  threatened. 
From  a  chance  word  dropped  here,  repeated  there, 
it  was  generally  believed  in  the  Quarter,  that  Sue 
was  the  child  of  one  of  Mai's  nieces  and  a  for 
eigner,  born  in  one  of  the  treaty  ports  of  China, 
and  that  old  Mai  knew  more  of  the  matter  than 
she  pretended  to  know,  and  one  day,  after  a 
conference  with  her  he  said,  pulling  a  long  bow 
at  a  possible  target: 

"And,  Mai-den,  how  if  I  can  prove  that  you 
have  no  right  to  Sue  at  all,  that  you  have  kept  as 
a  slave  to  do  your  meanest  work,  one  to  whom 
you  owe  your  very  existence?"  And  in  the  state 
of  abject  terror  and  shivering  fear  that  the  woman 
fell  into,  he  read  that  his  random  arrow  had  struck, 
and  the  old  quotation,  "As  the  flight  of  an  arrow 
from  the  bow  of  destiny,"  came  to  his  mind. 


24  SUE    CHUC 

The  woman,  with  the  instant  perception  that 
was  characteristic  of  her,  saw  that  she  had  be 
trayed  herself  and,  too,  at  what  was  a  chance  shot, 
and  was  prepared  to  make  a  good  fight  until  Fun 
succeeded  in  convincing  her  that  it  would  be  to 
her  advantage  to  accept  his  terms:  that,  whilst, 
he  had  shot  at  a  chance,  still  he  was  certain  that 
if  he  wished  to  make  it  his  object,  he  could  defi 
nitely  discover  what  it  was  she  sought  to  hide, 
and  then — well,  then  she  would  have  lost  both 
girl  and  money. 

At  last,  with  a  shrug,  Mai  accepted  his  terms 
and  Sue  was  put  under  the  care  of  kind  Miss  Cam 
eron  until  he  could  take  her  to  the  school  in  Phil 
adelphia,  that  his  friend  recommended.  And  one 
day  in  the  late  fall  they  two,  so  strangely  brought 
together,  left  the  Golden  West  and  started  on  the 
journey  that  was  to  be  the  beginning  of  the  new 
life. 

People  looked  kindly  at  the  young  girl  dressed 
in  the  simple,  well-chosen  clothes,  whose  immense 
eyes  looked  out  of  a  pale  face;  eyes  so  filled  with 
interest  and  yet  dreamy  and  carrying  in  their  vel 
vet  depths  such  worlds  of  unfathomable  longing. 

Fun  wore  his  clothes  as  though  clothes  of  no 
stranger  cut  had  ever  clothed  him.  His  black  hair, 
cut  short  and  brushed  staight  up  from  the  broad 
forehead,  told  no  tale  of  braided  queue  and  partly 


SUE    CHUG  25 

shaven  scalp  and  the  suggestion  of  foreignness 
they  both  gave  might  have  meant  that  of  one  of 
several  nations,  but  not  amongst  them,  China. 

Fun's  English,  the  English  of  the  American 
born  and  bred,  gave  no  hint,  and  Sue's  hesitating 
but  correct  speech  held  no  taint  of  the  Chinese 
tongue.  In  fact,  her  progress  had  been  phenom 
enal  and  Miss  Cameron  had  mourned  loudly  the 

loss  of  so  eager  and  studious  a  pupil. 

****** 

Five  years  had  passed,  and  one  day  in  Novem 
ber  Sue,  still  slender  and  little  taller,  but  with  the 
soft  curves  that  denoted  her  development  from  lit 
tle  girl  to  young  woman,  the  one  time  pallor  now 
superseded  by  a  faint  color  that  at  the  moment 
was  unusually  bright,  her  profuse  soft  black  hair 
piled  high  upon  the  small  classic  head,  her  eyes 
shining  under  their  long  and  heavy  lashes,  walked 
into  the  room  where  Fun  awaited  her  coming,  and 
the  two  met  after  a  separation  lasting  nearly  four 
years,  for  Fun  had  decided  upon  Germany  for 
his  post-graduate  course  and  the  vacations  had 
been  but  opportunities  for  further  work  and 
harder  study. 

The  tall  man  and  the  little  girl  looked  almost 
solemnly  at  each  other,  taking*  in  the  visible 
changes  the  years  had  wrought.  Then  with  the 
old  tender  smile  and  gesture  her  heart  cried  out 


26  SUE    CHUC 

in  eager  recognition  of,  he  drew  her  to  him  and 
kissed  her. 

They  talked  and  talked;  there  seemed  endless 
subjects  to  be  discussed,  and  the  shadows  length 
ened,  and  a  maid  came  in  and  lit  the  gas  and  finally 
the  Principal  herself  came  in  and  laughingly  asked 
them  if  they  knew  that  the  dinner  hour  was  at 
hand. 

"Can  I  not  take  my  sister  to  dinner  with  me?" 
Fun  asked. 

"Surely,  surely.  Sue  dear,  run  and  put  your 
things  on  and  bundle  up  warm,  it  is  bitterly  cold," 
and  while  she  sped  to  do  their  bidding  Miss  Elliot, 
who  knew  their  story  and  felt  its  charm  and  un- 
usualness,  asked: 

"What  do  you  think  of  the  result  of  our  train 
ing,  Mr.  Fun?" 

"Ah,"  he  said,  "Miss  Elliot,  she  is  what  I  knew 
she  would  be,  given  the  chance." 

"Do   you   remain   here   long?" 

"No,  I  have  but  a  short  fortnight's  holiday. 

There  has  suddenly  opened  a  post  in ,  and  I 

shall  sail  from  San  Francisco  in  a  month  from 
to-day.  My  sister  will  begin  her  nurse's  training 
in  the  spring  and  when  she  has  finished  her  course, 
if  she  still  feels  that  it  is  a  vocation,  not  merely  an 
avocation — there  is  a  great  difference,  you  know" 
— smiling  at  her — "she  will  join  me." 


SUE    CHUC  27 

"What  a  perfect  dear  the  man  is,"  she  thought, 
"makes  one  think  of  the  whole  list  of  saints." 

"Yes,  all  of  the  difference  possible,  Mr.  Fun. 
We  are  in  despair  at  losing  Sue,  you  know." 

He  brightened. 

"Yes,  how  good  that  sounds,  it  means  that  she 
is  lovable;  to  me  she  is  that  to  a  degree,  but  that 
her  schoolfellows  and  teachers  feel  it  means  that 
her.  power  for  helpfulness  in  her  work  will  be 
great.  I  suppose  there  is  absolutely  no  quality  so 
needed  in  the  kind  of  work  we  want  to  do. 

"I  shall  ask  you  to  let  me  have  Sue  for  the  fort 
night  I  remain  in  New  York,  Miss  Elliot,  and  to 
morrow  I  will  take  her  with  me  upon  my  return 
there." 

"Yes,  of  course,  the  dear  child,  it  will  be  good 
for  her,  but,  I  fear,  will  make  the  separation  even 
harder." 

"Ah,  that well,  the  years  have  a  way  of 

flying,  and  in  three  years  she  will  come  to  me." 

"Is  this  a  large  city  you  are  going  to,  Mr. 
Fun?" 

"Yes,  one  of  the  several  great  interior  cities  of 
China.  The  field  will  be  a  big  one.  My  chance 
has  come  through  the  decision  of  Doctor  Ray 
to  take  a  two  years'  vacation,  and  I  hope  to  so 
'make  good,'  as  we  say  here,  that  when  the  doctor 
returns  I  will  be  kept  as  her  assistant." 


28  SUE    CHUC 

"You  are  modest,  Mr.  Fun,  to  be  willing  to 
take    a   subordinate  position,    and   that  under   a 


woman." 


"But  such  a  woman,"  he  said  reverently.  "What 
an  opportunity  for  me,  I  appreciate  it,"  he  said 
simply,  and  again  Miss  Elliot  felt  her  heart  warm 
toward  him. 

As  they  sat  at  dinner  that  night,  Sue  suddenly 
laughed,  a  merry,  thoroughly  girlish  laugh,  that 
made  Fun  smile  in  response. 

"Oh,  Fun,  who  would  think  that  only  five  years 
have  gone  by  since  we  picnicked  on  the  sand  dunes 
in  front  of  the  Life  Saving  Station  that  day;  I  in 
my  borrowed  gorgeousness !  Do  you  know" — 
more  seriously— -"I  never  was  able  to  put  back 
into  the  jug  that  two  dollars  I  took  from  Mai  for 
the  slippers." 

Fun  laughed  somewhat  grimly  as  he  said:  "I 
think,  Sue,  that  you  are  not  in  debt  to  old  Mai 
den.  If  the  truth  were  known  it  is  the  other  way 
around.  I  am  going  to  make  it  my  business  to 
look  up  that  small  personification  of  evilness  when 
I  get  back  to  San  Francisco  and  try  again  to  find 
out  something  of  your  story,  for  story  there  is  and 
she  knows  it." 

"Do  you  think  so?  I  should  so  like  to  be  cer 
tain  that  I  am  at  least  half  white." 

"All  white,  Sue,"  he  laughed,  quoting  from  his 


SUE    CHUC  29 

old  boyhood  days;  "all  white  if  you  are  a  China 
man.  But,  yes,  I  know  how  you  feel  and  you're 
right  to  want  to  know  absolutely;  such  knowledge 
gives  one  something  to  hold  on  to  in  the  bad 
hours."  At  her  look  of  questioning  he  added: 

"There  always  come  'bad  hours,*  dear,  and  es 
pecially  to  those  of  us  who  have  mixed  blood. 
You  see,  there  are  two  warring  elements  to  be 
reckoned  with:  the  generations  of  hard  and  fast 
prejudices;  the  moral  quirks  of  two  strong  heredi 
ties  to  battle  with." 

She  leaned  her  head  on  her  hand  meditatively. 

"That  does  account  for  things,  Fun;  things  that 
have  always  puzzled  me  in  myself,  'shadows  of 
potentialities'  some  one  calls  them,  and  I  only 
wonder  I  never  stumbled  across  an  explanation 
before." 

Fun  noticed  the  small  hands,  now  white  and 
soft,  with  that  exquisite  texture  of  flesh  that  be 
longs  to  the  Oriental  as  by  birthright,  and  said: 
"Put  out  your  right  hand,  palm  up,  Sue.  No,  no 
one  will  notice,  and  if  they  do  they  will  only  think 
we  are  of  the  order  of  the  people  'palmistry 
mad.'  " 

As  he  bent  over  her  hand  she  said: 

"It's  not  fair,  you  know;  this  makes  the  third 
time  since  we  knew  each  other  that  you  have  looked 
at  my  palm  and  told  me  no  single  thing  of  what 


3o  SUE    CHUC 

you  have  seen.  I  hope  you  won't  acquire  that 
sort  of  4I  have  read  your  secret'  look  that  palmists 
get,"  she  teased. 

He  tapped  the  rosy  palm  lightly  and  answered : 
"Take  back  your  hand,  for  I  won't  yet  tell  what 
I  see  in  it." 

"Do  you  really  see  things,  Fun?"  her  eyes 
twinkling. 

"Yes,  I  really  see  things,  potentialities,  for  in 
stance." 

"Oh" — and  she  hastily  withdrew  the  hand  and 
rubbed  its  palm  on  the  edge  of  the  table. 

"Will  you  ever  tell  me  what  you  saw,  or  will 
you  wait  until  something  happens  and  then  tell  me 
you  knew  it  would  all  along?" 

He  laughed.  "What  a  tease  the  small  person 
has  become !  I'm  so  delighted,  Sue,  that  you  don't 
take  life  too  seriously.  Coming  over  on  the 
steamer  there  was  a  young  woman  who  nearly 
drove  me  to  suicide  because  she  did  take  life  too 
seriously,  and  she  waylaid  me  in  the  hollows  be 
tween  the  ventilators  on  deck  to  discuss  the  condi 
tion  of  her  soul  daily;  to  give  me  her  opinion  of 
the  mismanagement  of  the  mission  stations  in 
China  and  her  determination  to  effect  wholesale  re 
form  upon  her  arrival  there. 

"I  hope  she  will  get  properly  put  in  her  place 
when  she  does  get  there.  A  certain  amount  of 


SUE    CHUG  31 

seriousness  is  necessary,  but  not  the  kind  that 
feels  obliged  to  look  the  part  all  the  time.  I  think 
it,  like  all  emotions,  must  be  a  strong  inward  im 
pulse,  not  labeled  like  a  certain  celebrated  beauty 
powder,  'for  external  use  only/  " 

"Good!  I  should  just  hate  to  have  to  look 
sanctimonious.  That's  one  reason  Fm  glad  we're 
going  to  be  only  medicos,  not  missionaries." 

"Oh— medicos!" 

"Yes,  you  do  not  really  think  I'm  going  to  be 
content  to  be  a  nurse,  do  you?" 

At  Fun's  look  of  surprise  she  laughed  outright. 
"Why,  Fun,  I  could  pass  the  second  year's  exams 
now,  right  now — I've  been  studying  for  eighteen 
months." 

"And  you  never  told  me !" 

"No,  I  wanted  to  surprise  you." 

"You  have!" 

"Aren't  you  glad?" 

"Yes,  I  think  I  am,  but  I'll  have  to  rearrange 
all  my  plans  and  look  out  for  some  one  to  fill 
that  position  of  head  nurse  in  the  hospital  I 
thought  you  would  grow  into." 

"I  won't  be  too  proud  to  be  head  nurse,  only 
I  would  not  be  contented  to  have  only  the  nurse? s 
training,  you  know." 

He  looked  at  her  with  increased  interest  and 
smiled.  "All  white,"  he  thought. 


CHAPTER   IV 

iAI-DEN'S  eyes  held  a  frightened 
look  as  she  answered  the  knock  at 
her  door  and  saw  who  her  guest 
was. 

"You "  she  faltered. 

"Yes,  I,  Mai-den,"  Fun  an- 
swered,  as  he  entered  the  familiar  room  and 
glanced  around. 

Mai  called  a  shrill  direction  to  the  servant,  who 
came  at  her  cry,  and  closed  the  doors  of  both 
rooms.  Mai-den  pushed  forward  a  chair,  saying, 
in  her  usual  voice: 

"Mai-den  feels  deeply  honored  that  her  poor 
home  should  find  such  favor  in  your  eyes  that 
you  should  come  to  it  upon  your  return." 

Fun  had  not  accepted  the  chair,  and  stood 
with  his  tall  figure  drawn  to  its  height  and  looked 
down  on  the  woman  with  grave,  observing  eyes, 
and  did  not  answer  her  flowery  speech  in  the 
fashion  of  its  kind,  but  in  the  direct  tone  of  his 
adopted  tongue. 

"You  know  what  I  have  come  for,  Mai-den, 


SUE    CHUC  33 

and  you  will  give  me,  in  fewest  words — for  my 
time  is  limited — an  exact  account  of  Sue's  parent 
age." 

His  eyes  held  hers,  and  her  gaze,  after  a  second 
of  determined  resistance,  dropped  to  the  floor,  and 
a  wave  of  emotion  passed  over  her  full,  smooth 
face,  then  left  it  impassive. 

His  tone  of  command,  gentle  as  it  was — the 
power  back  of  the  command  that  she  felt  and 
quailed  before,  she  tried  to  resist.  Again  she 
lifted  her  eyes  to  the  steady,  grave  ones  bent  upon 
her,  whose  pupils  had  contracted  to  a  point,  which 
seemed  to  her  excited  and  troubled  fancy  to  emit 
sparks  and  caused  her  involuntarily  to  glance  to 
ward  the  niche  with  its  Joss  and  burning  stick  of 
incense  as  though  for  protection. 

Again  the  quiet,  level  voice,  insistent,  command 
ing,  asked  the  question. 

With  a  gesture  of  the  hands,  expressive  of  her 
acceptance  of  the  inevitable,  she  sat  down  on  the 
chair  nearest  her  as  though  glad  of  its  sustaining 
prop,  and  after  a  full  moment  of  silence,  during 
which  time  the  man's  eyes  remained  upon  her,  she 
began,  her  voice  much  lower  than  usual. 

"Sue  Chuc  was  born  in  Soo-Chwang.  Her 
mother  was  the  daughter  of  a  half-caste  girl  who 
had  for  father  the  master  of  a  Russian  warship. 
Her  father  was" — here  she  paused — "an  Ameri- 


34  SUE    CHUC 

can.  They  both  died  when  Sue  was  a  baby,  in  the 
great  Black  Plague  year." 

"Most  of  that  I  knew.  What  was  the  name  of 
her  father,  and  what  his  business?  Have  you  any 
papers  or  articles  of  any  kind  to  prove  what  you 
affirm?" 

She  rose  and  went  to  a  strong  brass-bound  chest 
of  drawers  and,  opening  a  compartment,  drew 
out  from  under  a  heap  of  articles  a  small  box, 
which  she  brought  to  the  table,  and,  opening, 
turned  upside  down  on  the  cover. 

There  was  a  package  of  some  half  dozen  let 
ters,  a  gold  locket  and  a  chain,  a  photograph 
carefully  wrapped  in  many  folds  of  soft  paper, 
and  a  bulky  envelope,  sealed  and  addressed.  This 
last  she  took  from  the  heap  and  held  toward  him. 

As  his  eyes  rested  on  the  address,  a  flash  of  color 
crossed  his  face,  and  his  firm  lips  trembled. 

"Powers  that  be!"  he  thought,  "what  a  wonder 
ful  thing  is  destiny!" 

He  laid  it  aside  and  held  out  his  hand  for  the 
package  of  letters  which  she  handed  him.  He 
read  them  in  sequence,  and  his  face  darkened  as 
he  read.  When  he  had  finished  the  last  he  stood 
thinking  deeply  for  a  while  and  Mai-den  moist 
ened  her  lips  and  once  or  twice  made  as  though 
to  speak. 

He  looked  toward  the  wrapped  square,  and  she 


SUE   CHUG  35 

took  off  its  wrappers  and  passed  it  to  him. 

He  looked  earnestly  at  the  pictured  face,  at  that 
youthful  face  now  grown  so  familiar  in  its  devel 
oped  strength  and  ripened  manhood.  That  face 
so  well  known  through  all  the  nation  by  its  oft- 
repeated  likeness  in  newspaper  and  magazine. 
The  face  of  a  man  whose  power  was  felt  and  ac 
knowledged  in  every  land,  and  whose  name  was 
one  to  conjure  with. 

The  locket  held  a  woman's  picture,  young,  beau 
tiful,  with  the  beauty  so  often  seen  where  there 
is  an  admixture  of  race,  and  he  traced  a  resem 
blance  to  Sue  in  it,  as  in  the  other. 

"You  lied  to  me,"  he  said;  "the  father  did  not 
die.  Why  did  you  ?"  he  asked. 

"I  loved  him,"  she  answered  simply,  after  a 
pause,  her  face  working  tremulously.  "I  was 
young  then — and  she  won  him  from  me.  I  was 
glad  when  she  died.  Him  I  nursed  back  to  health 
and  he  left.  I  have  never  seen  him  since." 

"But  the  child,  Sue;  he  knew  of  her?" 

"He  was  told  she  had  died  with  her  mother." 

The  woman's  composure  broke  down,  and  she 
poured  out  a  torrent  of  words.  All  of  the  work 
ings  of  her  heart  she  laid  bare. 

"How  you  hated  the  child,"  he  said. 

"I  hated  her — I  hated  her!"  she  assented,  bring 
ing  down  her  doubled  fist  upon  the  table. 


g6  SUE  CHUG 

"It  is  fate,  I  saw  it  coming,  I  knew  I  could  not 
avert  it.  I  hoped  she  might  die,  but  I  could  not 
kill  her.  I  was  but  little  older  than  her  mother. 
I  was  pretty,  I  loved  him,  and  she  won  him  from 
me."  It  was  as  though  that  fixed  idea  had  been 
the  mainspring  of  her  whole  life.  There  was  in 
her  tone  bitterest  resentment,  a  questioning  of  the 
why  of  destiny  and  fate. 

Fun  gathered  up  the  various  articles,  placed 
them  in  the  inner  pocket  of  his  coat,  and,  taking 
his  pocketbook,  unfolded  and  handed  her  a  bank 
bill. 

She  pushed  it  aside  contemptuously. 

"I  am  rich,  I  do  not  need  your  money.  I  spoke 
because  I  dared  not  longer  keep  silence  when  your 
eyes  looked  at  me  so.  What  will  you  do  with  the 
knowledge?" 

"That  I  have  not  decided." 

"Will  you  tell  the — the  man?"  she  faltered. 

"I  do  not  know;  Sue  shall  decide." 

"He  will  be  here  soon,"  she  said.  "He  has 
often  been  here.  I  never  would  go  to  look  at  him 
as  he  passed,  as  did  the  others;  but  I  know  of  his 
life — he  is  married  and  has  other  children.  Will 
he  be  glad  that  you  have  served  as  the  servant  of 
fate  for  him?" 
v  "I  do  not  know,"  he  answered. 

"The  servant  of  fate;  yes,  that  is  what  we  each 


SUE    CHUG  37 

arc  in  our  time/'  he  thought.  "  'Tis  a  tangle,  the 
good  and  the  bad  threads  woven  so  closely  into 
the  life  pattern." 

He  took  up  his  hat  and  bowing  formally  to  the 
woman  went  out  of  the  room  and  down  the  stairs 
with  no  glance  even  toward  the  room  on  the  op 
posite  side  of  the  dark  and  narrow  hall,  but  his 
feet  instinctively  avoided  the  treacherous  places 
in  the  steps  that  had  often  been  pitfalls  to  his 
stumbling  tread  in  the  days  gone,  the  days  of  the 
poppy  dreams. 


uSan  Francisco,  December  3Oth. 
"Mv  DEAR  SUE: 

"My  steamer  is  sailing  to-morrow,  everything 
is  packed  and  ready,  and  if  it  were  not  that  I  dread 
putting  so  long  a  distance  between  us,  I  should  be 
glad.  My  feeling  for  San  Francisco  is  of  such"  a 
mixed  nature  that  I  do  /lot  even  know  whether 
it  is  more  of  relief  than  sorrow  at  again  leaving 
it,  this  time  possibly  for  good. 

"Now,  little  sister,  will  you  give  me  permission 
to  keep  silent  upon  the  information  I  obtained 
from  Mai-den,  beyond  the  fact  that  it  is  as  I 
thought:  your  father  is  of  Occidental  blood. 

"Can  you  trust  me  to  judge  in  this  matter,  and 
feel  confidence  absolute  in  my  integrity  of  purpose 


3  8  SUE    CHUC 

when  I  say  I  feel  that,  for  the  present,  if  not  for 
all  time,  the  knowledge  I  possess  of  your  birth  it 
is  best  to  keep  silent  upon.  Search  your  heart;  the 
decision  rests  with  you.  I  can  only  tell  you  that 
I  personally  believe  it  for  the  best  to  leave  the 
knowledge  unused.  Should  you,  however,  feel  me 
at  fault,  tell  me  frankly  and  I  will  set  in  motion 
the  machinery  necessary  to  accomplish  your  de 
sire.  Frankly  I  fear,  dear,  that  if  you  decide  to 
know,  our  dreams  of  a  life  work  together  will  fade 
into  the  stuff  that  dreams  are  made  of.  I  do  not 
need  to  tell  you — that  fact,  however,  has  not  any 
slightest  effect  upon  my  belief  that  for  you  and 
others  it  is  best  you  should  do  nothing  with  the 
knowledge  that  has  come  to  me,  and  that  is  yours 
at  your  demand. 

"You  will  be  glad  to  know  that,  whatever  your 
decision,  I  shall  believe  you  have  made  it  with  the 
fullest  right  intention.  You  and  I,  Sue,  need  never 
after  these  years  doubt  each  other.  So  good-by, 
little  sister;  write  me  often,  tell  me  all  that  makes 
up  your  life,  and  I  will  send  you  full  accounts  of 
myself  and  the  work. 

"Yours  always  in  service, 

"FUN." 


CHAPTER  V, 


HEN  Fun's  letter  reached  Sue  she 
was  in  the  first  throes  of  physical 
revolt  over  life  as  it  presented  it 
self  to  her,  a  newcomer  in  the  great 
hospital  where  she  had  gone  to'take 
up  the  course  in  nursing,  having 
flatly  refused  to  wait  until  the  spring,  as  had  been 
arranged. 

All  of  those  long  months  between  seemed  to 
her  as  separating  her  just  so  much  longer  from 
the  day  when,  as  a  graduate,  she  could  join  Fun 
in  China,  and,  although  she  had  known,  as  we 
know  of  the  things  we  read  of,  that  the  course 
would  begin  with  the  humblest  duties,  the  most 
menial  service,  still,  after  the  years  of  life  at  school 
and  its  atmosphere  of  delicate  ease  for  the  physical, 
these  new  duties,  that  somehow  seemed  not  to 
have  much  to  do  with  the  real  knowledge  she  was 
there  to  acquire,  were  hard  for  her,  and  she  had 
to  grit  her  teeth  and  bend  her  will  to  them  and  dis 
tinctly  refuse  to  be  moved  by  the  inward  voice  of 
revolt,  to  remember  that  all  of  the  nurses,  yea, 
even  the  competent,  rather  awe-inspiring  Miss 


40  SUE    CHUG 

Johns,  the  head  nurse,  must  have  gone  through  the 
identical  training  before  the  next  step  toward  her 
now  high  estate  had  been  reached. 

So  that,  after  reading  the  letter  and  scenting 
a  possible  interesting  denouement — and  here  her 
vivid  imagination  took  fire  and  blazed  up  into  ac 
tivity — she  found  it  at  first  not  easy  to  accept  the 
almost  casual  mention  of  these  stupendous  facts 
of  her  life.  But  her  faith  in  the  big,  kind  brother, 
and  the  knowledge  of  his  clear-sightedness  came 
to  her  aid  and  helped  her  to  make  her  answer 
what  she  felt  he  would  wish. 

She  wrote  it  late  that  afternoon  during  her  off 
hour  and  felt,  as  she  did  it,  that  the  years  be 
tween  the  present  and  that  looked-toward  future 
had  in  some  uncanny  way  doubled  in  length. 

"New  York,  January  i2th. 
"DEAR  FUN: 

"Yes,  of  course  I  will  do  exactly  what  you  think 
best,  and,  too,  do  it  in  the  fullest  understanding 
and  belief  in  your  knowing  what  is  best.  I  don't 
mind  telling  you,  however,  that  I  did  go  through 
a  bad  quarter  of  an  hour  after  the  fact  had  pene 
trated  my  brain  that  there  was  a  mystery  and  that 
you  said  I  might  know  it  for  the  asking,  and  that 
if  I  asked  it  would  mean  possibly  our  dear  plans 
upset.  But  when  I  looked  the  thing  in  the  face, 
and  the  realization  came  that  nothing  could  make 


SUE    CHUC  41 

up  to  me  for  the  loss  of  the  fulfilment  of  our  pre 
cious  plans,  I  for  once  and  all  gave  it  up. 

"Oh,  yes,  I  patted  myself  on  the  back,  even  felt 
of  my  shoulder-blades  to  see  if  I  could  detect  the 
presence  of  the  pin  feathers  of  those  most  beaute 
ous  wings  I  felt  certain  must  be  sprouting.  No 
sign,  so  I  put  the  letter  in  my  pocket  and  went  back 
to  washing  out  the  sinks,  cleaning  the  awful  uten 
sils,  and  generally  ruining  the  hands  you  so  inter 
estedly  studied.  Even  had  a  sort  of  feeling  once 
or  twice  that  the  lovely  years  between  the  Alley 
days  with  Mai-den  and  the  present  day  here  had 
been  a  dream  and  only  the  overpowering  smells 
here  gave  me  the  consoling  feeling  that  it  was 
real ;  for  fearfully  as  the  Quarter  smelled  in  those 
old  days,  the  scents  there  were  as  of  Araby,  com 
pared  to  these. 

"No,  distinctly  I  do  not  like  it,  this  work,  but  I'll 
do  it  and  well,  because  it's  part  of  the  price  I  must 
pay,  and  I'm  always  going  to  pay  for  what  I  get 
in  life. 

"But  now  really,  Fun  dear,  why  is  it  necessary 
for  us  who  come  here  to  study  nursing  to  waste 
time  doing  the  lowest  coolie  work?  If  it's  in  the 
way  of  discipline  I'll  say  very  well  —  if  it's  been 
proven  it's  worth  it!  If  it's  in  the  way  of  harden 
ing  our  stomachs  to  awfulness,  well,  that  too  is  all 
right,  but  if  it's  just  plain  because  it  once  began 


42  SUE    CHUG 

for  reasons  now  lost  sight  of  and  is  kept  up  for 
reasons  not  explained  —  I  want  to  put  myself  on 
record  as  objecting! 

"Now  please  don't  think  I  am  complaining  or 
sorry  I  decided  to  do  this,  I'm  not,  you  know, 
either  of  these  things. 

"There  is  an  awfully  jolly,  clever  girl  here,  who 
came  in  when  I  did  and  who  feels  as  I  do  about 
this  first  work.  We  exchange  confidences  over 
our,  eh  —  'pots  and  pans.'  We  are,  I  think,  go 
ing  to  be  friends.  She  has  the  very  nicest  brown 
eyes,  excepting  yours,  I  ever  saw,  and  perfect 
mops  of  wavy  dark  red  hair.  She's  a  big  girl  and 
already  the  others  have  dubbed  us  'one  and  a 
half.'  All  of  the  nurses  seem  a  nice  sort  and  a 
few  stand  out  as  startlingly  superior. 

"I  never  heard  so  much  slang  in  my  life !  You 
see  it  was  not  indulged  in  at  Miss  Elliot's,  not 
being  considered  'elegant,'  but  I  am  so  amused 
and  delighted  with  it;  why  it  has,  or  is  an  entire 
language  and  I  find  myself  beginning  to  drop  into 
it  with  an  ease  that  speaks  well  for  my  linguistic 
abilities.  Wonder  how  it  comes  that  I  pick  up 
languages  so  readily;  is  it  because  Chinese  is  so 
terrific  others  are  easy  in  comparison? 

"You  told  me  not  to  fail  to  let  you  know  how  we 
were  lodged  and  fed.  Well  don't  worry,  it's  Par 
adise  to  what  the  Alley  was  in  San  Francisco,  and 


SUE    CHUC  43 

we  will  let  it  go  at  that  for  the  present.  Will  do  as 
you  suggest  each  week  when  I  have  my  playtime' 
and  now  don't  worry.  I'm  as  strong  as  a  moun 
tain  pony  if  I  am  no  bigger  than  a  minute,  which 
is  what  my  nice  girl,  Stella  Marks,  says  of  me, 
amongst  other  things. 

"Yes,  I'll  write  often  and  keep  you  au  fait  of  my 
daily  life,  and  please,  dear,  dear  Fun,  when  you 
write  tell  me  all  of  the  little  things.  Men  don't 
ever  seem  to  realize  how  necessary  the  knowledge 
of  the  little  things  in  life  is,  and  how  it  makes  time 
and  distance  more  bearable.  Tell  me  how  your 
quarters  are  furnished,  tell  me  all  about  that  won 
derful  woman  doctor  whose  place  you  are  going 
to  fill — but,  come  to  think  of  it,  I  will  see  her, 
won't  I  ?  •> —  if  you  keep  your  promise  of  telling 
her  of  me  and  asking  her  to  find  time  to  come  and 
see  me  when  she  gets  to  New  York. 

"After  you  get  settled  I'll  write  out  lists  of  ques 
tions  for  you  to  answer,  then  I  won't  feel  I'm  miss 
ing  shades.  Yes,  I'm  happy,  my  'thumbs  are  up' 
as  I  write  this,  or  one  is,  so  the  roof  won't  fall  on 
me,  but  anyway  three  years  is  not,  not  so  dread 
fully  long.  No,  that  is  not  a  tear-splash  on  the 
paper,  it's  only  the  place  where  the  Recording 
Angel  put  his  finger  for  a  second. 

"Your  SUE." 


CHAPTER   VI 


iHE  tall  woman  looked  searchingly 
into  the  eyes  of  the  man,  just  level 
with  her  own,  and,  after  a  second, 
nodded  as  though  satisfied  and 
held  out  her  hand  cordially  to  him. 
"More  glad  than  I  can  tell,  Dr. 
Fun,  that  you  are  you"  —  laughing  at  the  sound 
of  her  cryptic  utterance.  "To  be  frank,  I  had 
feared  you  might  be  —  well,  different.  I  shall,  I 
think,  now,  be  able  to  leave  my  work  with  the 
feeling  that  it  won't  suffer  from  my  absence.  I  knew, 
from  your  record  and  from  sources  various  that 
you  were  capable  scientifically,  you  know,  but  there 
is  so  much  more  needed  here  than  just  that — it  is 
a  huge  field,"  she  added. 

"Yes,  a  huge  field  and  one  brave,  big-hearted, 
talented  woman  has  sown  the  seeds  that  are  pro 
mising  so  great  a  harvest,"  Fun  thought.  What 
he  said  was  the  thing  that  showed  his  acceptance 
of  the  responsibility  and  his  whole-souled  intention 
to  do  his  part. 

"I  have  arranged  for  you  to  have  my  old 
rooms;  there  are  advantages  that  more  than  over- 


SUE    CHUC  45 

weigh  the  disadvantages ;  for  instance,  they  are  out 
of  the  city  yet  sufficiently  near  to  make  it  easy  to 
reach  your  patients  who  are  not  in  the  hospital, 
and  being  what  you  are  in  nature  and  training, 
more  suitable  than  any  to  be  got  in  the  city." 

Fun  smiled,  his  thoughts  had  flown  to  the  room 
in  the  Alley. 

"If  you  will  first  go  over  the  Hospital  with  me, 
we  will  then  go  up  to  see  them.  You  can  take  up 
your  permanent  residence  there  on  my  departure. 
In  the  meantime  you  will  be  the  guest  of  the 
Grants." 

The  inspection  finished,  the  introductions  to  the 
native  doctors  and  nurses  over  with,  they  were 
again  in  the  small,  bright,  bare  office. 

"Well?"  the  Doctor  asked. 

"Oh,  more  than  well,  Dr.  Ray,  you  have  one 
of  the  best  equipped  and  best  systematized  hos 
pitals  I  have  seen.  How  did  you  accomplish  it?" 

She  smiled  grimly.  "By  sheer  determination 
and  with  the  help  of  that  blessed  old  saint,  Dr. 
Ah-Fing.  You  will  meet  him  to-night,  he  is  here 
on  business.  Heavens!  you  should  have  seen  the 
place  when  I  came  to  it.  I'm  not  afraid  or  mock- 
modest,  I've  worked  hard,  lived  hard,  and  I  feel 
I  have  the  right  to  be  glad  and  proud,  and  I've  a 
bad  habit  of  showing  somewhat  frankly  my  feel 
ings,"  she  added  whimsically. 


46  SUE    CHUC 

"Now  you  are  in  possession  of  all  the  necessary 
information,  and  the  thousand  and  one  things  that 
come  up  you  will  be  better  able  to  cope  with  if  I 
do  not  insist  upon  details.  I'll,  however,  reiterate 
what  I  said  a  few  hours  ago,  "I'm  glad  you  are 
you !  Shall  we  go  up  to  the  house,  now  ?  I  want 
you  to  meet  the  Grants  and  see  your  rooms  to 
be." 

They  stepped  out  of  the  chairs  at  the  steps  lead 
ing  up  to  the  big  rambling  stone  and  cement  house 
that  crowned  the  hill. 

"It  has  the  appearance  of  a  mediaeval  fortress 
with  an  adornment  of  German  wedding-cake  frost- 
ing." 

She  laughed,  "Yes,  hasn't  it?  The  adornment, 
however,  is  really  for  comfort.  All  of  those  bal 
conies  and  verandahs  are  God-sends  in  this  climate 
and,  as  you  can  imagine,  the  view  is  wonderful. 
Your  rooms  face  the  East-South,  so  they  are 
bright  in  winter  and  in  shadow  during  the  months 
one  craves  shadow  as  one  would  the  greatest  good 
the  Gods  could  send." 

Fun  looked  at  her  curiously,  "You  stand  the  cli 
mate  well,  Doctor,  this  is  your  first  vacation  for 
many  years,  I  hear." 

"Yes,  I  am  a  perfect  salamander  and  I'm  too 
busy  most  times  to  think  of  myself.  Here  we  are, 
did  the  climb  wind  you?  No,  I  see  not.  There 


SUE    CHUC  47 

is  a  good  chair  grade  but  it's  much  longer,  and  I 
never,  except  when  absolutely  fagged,  can  bring 
myself  to  be  carried  up,  always  feel  that  the  poor 
wretches  who  have  to  do  the  work  must  have 
hate  in  their  hearts  for  me,"  she  laughed.  "You 
see,  being  a  woman  I  do  not  have  to  be  logical. 
That's  one  of  the  few,  very  few,  advantages  the 
sex  gives  us,  so  I  deliberately  refrain  from  being 
carried,  although  I  know  I  am  taking  away  from 
them  needed  money  and" — with  another  laugh — 
"I  salve  my  conscience  and  win  back  their  lik 
ing  by  paying  them  just  the  same,  and  walking." 

Fun  laughed  outright — he  found  this  woman 
delightful,  and,  added  to  his  great  admiration 
and  respect,  there  sprang  into  being,  full-grown, 
a  liking. 

"Dr.  Ah-Fing,  this  is  my  successor,  Dr.  Fun, 
and  I  am  delighted  to  be  able  to  assure  you  that 
I  do  not  hate  him." 

The  stately  old  man  rose  from  his  chair,  his 
fine  aesthetic  face  bright  with  kindliness,  and 
stretched  forth  a  shapely,  slender  hand.  His 
eyes  looked  intently  into  Dr.  Fun's,  and  were  met 
by  a  glance  strangely  like.  With  a  mutual  feel 
ing  of  liking,  the  hands  touched,  clasped,  and 
dropped,  but  over  the  Doctor's  face  had  come 
a  look  of  wonder  as  she  saw  the  men  face  to 
face  and  recognized  the  remarkable  resemblance. 


48  SUE    CHUG 

She  had  several  times  during  the  hours  since 
meeting  Fun  been  struck  with  the  feeling  of  hav 
ing  seen  him  before,  and  put  it  down  to  one  of 
the  queer,  subconscious  memories  that  come  to  us 
all;  but  seeing  the  men  together  had  startled  her, 
and  she  wondered  if  they  saw  it,  and  was  about 
to  ask  when  there  flashed  across  her  mind  the 
sentence  of  a  letter:  "You  are  going  to  be  im 
mensely  struck  with  the  man  who  is  coming  out 
to  you.  Seldom  have  I  met  so  forceful  a  per 
sonality,  such  great  gifts,  and  so  gentle  a  na 
ture. 

"There  is  a  story  of  course.  He  was  stolen 
from  his  family  when  only  a  baby  and  brought 
up  as  the  son  of  a  man  who  was  well  known  and 
well  placed,  was  given  every  advantage,  and  was 
on  the  road  to  making  his  mark  when  the  man 
he  thought  his  father  died,  suddenly,  with  but 
time  to  tell  him  the  bare  facts,  and  among  his 
effects  no  single  clue  could  be  found  to  make 
the  outworking  of  the  puzzle  possible.  Then 
there  were  some  years  that  I  cannot  tell  you  of, 
possibly  he  may  some  time  (most  people,  I  no 
tice,  do  tell  you  things),  and  then  a  return  to  his 
life  of  study,  and  the  result  of  that  you  know." 

The  Doctor's  heart  beat  hard;  she  knew  the  sad 
and  tragic  history  of  Dr.  Ah-Fing,  and,  seeing 
this  marvelous  likeness  between  the  two  men  and 


SUE    CHUC  49 

dovetailing  the  two  stories,  she  wondered  if  by 
chance  this  might  be  one  of  the  rare  cases  where 
the  fates  were  feeling  it  right  to  unravel  puzzles. 
During  the  meal,  which  was  served  almost  im 
mediately,  she  watched  them  and  marveled  more 
and  more  that  one  or  both  did  not  see  this  thing. 
Why,  even  the  timbre  of  the  voices  was  alike. 
No,  apparently,  they  only  felt  the  mutual  at 
traction;  but  how  they  drew  each  other,  how  they 
interested  each  other! 

Presently  the  conversation  passed  from  the 
work  and  its  significance  from  the  scientific  point 
of  view  to  the  purely  human  and  glanced  on  to 
the  more  personal  side.  "Dr.  Ray  tells  me  that 
you  are  a  native  of  the  United  States,"  Dr.  Ah- 
Fing  said;  "born  and  brought  up  there.  Are 
your  parents  dead?" 

Fun's  face  flushed  slightly.  "Yes,  born  and 
brought  up  there.  Of  my  parents  I  know  noth 
ing,"  he  added. 

"Ah,  I  see,  a  foundling,"  the  older  man's  eyes 
clouded  and  he  sighed.  "The  world  seems  very, 
very  full  of  such  cases,  and  not  so  often,  I  fear, 
do  the  little  ones  find  a  friend  as  kind  and  provi 
dent  for  their  future  as  you.  You  were  given 
great  advantages." 

Fun  bowed.  For  his  life  he  could  not  have 
carried  on  the  talk.  All  of  the  bitterness  his  heart 


50  SUE    CHUC 

had  once  held  and  which  he  thought  gone  utterly 
flooded  it  anew,  and  the  other  man  did  not  press 
the  subject,  much  to  Dr.  Ray's  regret,  for  she 
was  longing  for  some  word  to  be  spoken  that 
would  make  it  possible  for  her  to  ask  some  perti 
nent  questions. 

The  meal  finished,  they  went  into  the  Doctor's 
sitting  room  and  settled  down  for  the  evening's 
talk  on  matters  relating  only  to  the  work,  for  there 
was  to  be  scant  time  allowed  them  for  confer 
ence,  as  the  Doctor  must  leave  within  the  week 
on  her  long  journey  to  Shanghai,  from  whence 
she  would  sail  to  America. 

Late  that  night  Dr.  Ray  wrote  to  Madame 
Jay-San,  Ah-Fing's  sister,  and  very  right  hand 
in  all  of  his  great  work. 

"February   iyth. 
"My  DEAR  MADAME  JAY-SAN: 

"Your  brother  tells  me  I  am  not  to  have  the 
pleasure  of  seeing  you  to  say  good-by,  as  you 
will,  by  the  time  I  reach  Shanghai,  have  left  for 
Peking.  I  think  I  have  seldom  been  so  regret 
ful  over  anything,  for  two  reasons:  one  because 
I  wanted  to  see  you  greatly,  you  kindest  and  best 
of  friends;  one  because  I  wanted  to  tell  you  of 
my  successor,  Dr.  Fun,  who  has  arrived — and 
ask  you  of  many  things.  First,  let  me  assure  you 
that  I  am  pleased  beyond  words  with  him.  Had 


SUE    CHUG  51 

feared,  as  I  wrote  you,  that  he  might  be  merely 
an  immensely  clever,  scientific  young  surgeon.  I 
find  him  to  be  all  that,  but  likewise  possessing 
exactly  requisite  qualities  for  this  place,  and  shall 
leave  my  beloved  work  in  his  hands  with  perfect 
confidence.  You  are  doubtless  smiling  that  kind 
but  quizzical  smile  I  know  so  well,  and  thinking 
I  have  jumped  to  my  conclusion  with  remarkable 
quickness;  but  you  do  believe,  do  you  not,  in  the 
intuitive  sense  given  us  women,  and  in  my  ability 
to  draw  right  conclusions  from  what  seem  on  the 
surface  slight  premises?  I  know  that  you  do 
from  something  you  said  to  me  at  the  time  of 
that  sad  and  tragic  time  here  years  ago. 

"Am  greatly  interested  in  this  young  man.  I 
doubt  if  he  is  much  over  thirty,  although  he 
looks,  in  moments  when  he  is  not  speaking,  much 
older.  He  is  a  very  big  man,  big  as  is  our 
dear  Dr.  Ah-Fing,  with  a  straightness  and  erect- 
ness  of  carriage.  He  has  rather  wonderful  eyes, 
with  the  trick  of  pupil  that  we  physicians  know 
the  meaning  of — that  contraction  and  expansion 
one  very  occasionally  sees.  He  has  allowed  his 
hair  to  grow  and  is  at  present  wearing  it  in  na 
tive  fashion  by  the  aid  of  an  intricate  interwoven 
false  plait — a  necessity,  you  know,  here  where 
anything  resembling  a  turning  toward  foreign 
fashions  is  at  the  moment  resented.  Has  fine, 


52  SUE    CHUC 

long,  shapely  hands,  the  true  surgeon's  hands, 
supple,  light,  quick  of  touch;  very  magnificent 
teeth,  noticeably  perfect.  I  wonder  if  you  catch 
the  portrait?  Manner  quiet,  very  quiet;  voice — 
well,  his  voice  is  peculiar,  and  one  likes  it. 

"Now  I  know  you  are  laughing,  but  I  frankly 
admit  I  have  taken  to  him  greatly,  and,  too,  his 
history,  the  little  I  know  of  it,  interests  me 
strangely.  It  seems  he  was  stolen,  when  a  tiny 
baby,  from  his  parents  and  brought  up  in  igno 
rance  of  the  fact  until  the  death  of  the  man  he 
had  believed  his  father,  and  then  he  was  told 
only  the  bare  facts,  and  to  this  day  knows  noth 
ing  more.  I  do  wish  he  had  arrived  earlier  or 
that  I  could  stop  over  a  steamer;  I  so  want  to 
know  more  than  the  meager  details  I  am  telling 
you.  Perhaps  when  you  come  down  here  you 
can  draw  him  out;  if  you  do,  please,  dear  Ma-- 
dame  Jay,  write  the  details  to  me.  I  some  way 
have  the  feeling  that  I  am  going  to  be  defrauded 
of  a  big  sensation. 

"Many  thanks  for  the  beautiful  gown  you 
sent  me.  Were  those  lovely  blossoms  worked  by 
you?  It's  too  much,  you  know;  I  do  not  feel  that 
I  ought  to  accept  so  precious  a  thing,  and  of 
course  it  is  absolutely  absurd  for  me  to  intend 
wearing  it — a  grizzled-haired,  middle-aged  per 
son,  with  a  frame  like  a  wooden  scaffold,  but  I 


SUE    CHUC  53 

am  going  to  accept  it,  and  I  am  going  to  wear 
it  and  give  a  thought  of  deep  affection  and  grati 
tude  to  its  donor. 

"Yes,  of  course,  I  will  write  you;  and  when 
the  two  years  are  finished  I'll  hurry  home  (it  is 
that  to  me,  you  know). 

"With  all  my  heart,  yours, 
"ELLEN  RAY." 


CHAPTER   VII 


jUN  took  up  the  duties  of  his  new 
position  as  he  did  all  things — with 
direct  earnestness  of  purpose.  The 
few  changes  that  he  decided  were 
necessary  he  brought  about  so  grad 
ually  that  the  fact  that  they  were 
changes,  not  evolvements,  did  not  occur  to  the 
eyes  jealously,  if  in  friendliness,  watching  him. 
His  tact  was  perfect,  and  the  clean-hearted  whole- 
someness  of  his  big  nature  won  him  quickly  a  place 
in  the  hearts  of  his  subordinates  and  patients.  His 
days  were  filled  from  getting  up  to  lying  down, 
and  many  nights  when  he  felt  the  necessity  to  see 
late  some  patient  whose  condition  was  critical  he 
spent  on  the  sofa  in  his  office  at  the  hospital. 

One  of  Dr.  Ray's  hopes  was  eventually  to  ex 
terminate  a  certain  disease  that,  at  her  coming 
to  the  field  many  years  before,  had  been  a  scourge, 
and  that  she  had  demonstrated  could  be  controlled 
and  often  eradicated  by  set  reforms  of  diet  and 
condition,  and  Dr.  Fun  found  a  great  interest 
in  watching  the  results  of  the  treatment.  It  was 


SUE    CHUG  55 

already  May,  and  the  first  wave  of  the  summer 
heat  at  hand  when  he  realized  that  he  had  been 
overdoing  and  was  feeling  strangely  weak,  and 
that  he  now  accomplished  with  an  effort  what 
he  had  at  the  start  found  all  in  the  day's  work. 
He  had  about  decided  to  ask  help  from  Dr.  Ah- 
Fing,  when  he  learned  that  the  Doctor's  sister, 
Madame  Jay-San,  was  expected,  and  determined 
to  wait  and  talk  with  her. 

He  had  a  feeling  almost  of  shame  at  this  early 
breakdown,  and  could  not  understand  it.  Sev 
eral  times  when  his  strength  seemed  feeble  and 
he  knew  that  he  must  be  clear  of  brain  and  steady 
of  hand  for  some  delicate  operation  he  had  been 
strongly  tempted  to  resort  to  opium,  but  his  judg 
ment  told  him,  as  did  his  experience,  how  slender 
a  reed  that  was  to  lean  upon. 

In  the  early  part  of  June,  as  the  coolies  set 
down  the  chair  in  front  of  the  door  of  the  house 
upon  the  hill — for  he  could  not  walk  up  those 
steps  now  in  the  heat  and  after  the  fatigue  of  a 
hard  day — a  woman  came  to  meet  him,  and  as 
he  looked  into  the  kind  and  still  lovely  face  and 
felt  the  firm  clasp  of  the  soft  hands  he  knew  it 
must  be  the  Doctor's  sister,  and  stood  smiling 
at  her. 

She  had  paled  visibly  as  she  looked  at  him  and 
held  his  hands  as  though  she  needed  support  for 


56  SUE    CHUC 

a  second;  then,  noticing  his  evident  exhaustion, 
she  said:  "Ah,  Dr.  Fun,  it's  well  this  old  woman 
arrived  when  she  did;  you  have  been  doing  what 
so  many  do:  utterly  putting  aside  the  fact  that 
no  one  can  come  to  China  and  before  he  has 
given  himself  a  chance  to  get  acclimated  work 
night  and  day.  Come  into  my  sitting  room  and 
let  me  give  you  tea  and  scold  you." 

Her  eyes  had  never  left  his  face,  and  held  a 
look  of  wonder  and  tenderness,  but  her  voice 
was  merely  friendly  with  the  deep  friendliness  of 
the  woman  who  has  the  mother  nature  strongly 
implanted,  and  to  whom  no  outlet  but  that  of 
service  to  others,  not  her  own,  has  come.  Dr. 
Fun  sank  down  on  the  chair  she  pointed  out  to 
him  and  laughingly  apologized  for  his  so  ap 
parent  enjoyment  of  it. 

"You  must  not  think  me  a  weakling,  you  know. 
Really  I  am  possessed  of  a  marvelous  constitu 
tion;  but  it  is,  as  you  say,  a  case  of  not  taking 
account  of  little  new  conditions  of  all  kinds  and 
a  too  great  impatience  to  get  results.  But  why 
are  you  looking  at  me  so  closely  and  strangely? 
Am  I  in  any  way  different  from  what  you 
thought?"  smiling. 

She  laughed.  "Was  I  staring?  That  is  a  lam 
entable  habit  of  mine  they  tell  me  I  indulge  in 
when  for  the  first  time  I  meet  a  stranger.  Now 


SUE    CHUC  57 

let  me  order  our  tea.  You  like  it  at  this  hour, 
and  in  the  English  fashion,  yes?"  As  they  sipped 
their  tea  she  said:  "You  are  far  more  English 
than  American  in  your  evident  liking  of  the  brew. 
It  is  always  an  amusement  to  me  when  I  see  an 
American  man  attempting  afternoon  tea;  it's  so 
evidently  a  thing  to  be  done,  if  it  must  be,  and 
got  through  with.  We  who  have  had  the  Eng 
lish  training  get  the  charm  of  the  hour,  the  slight 
stimulus  of  the  drink,  and  enjoy  that  feeling  of 
general  well  contentedness  that  a  friend  of  mine 
always  speaks  of  as  'the  tea-hour  spirit.' ' 

He  looked  up  suddenly.  "How  strange,  that 
is  the  identical  phrase  that  a  friend  of  mine  uses 
and  she  is  the  greatest  tea  fiend  I  know,  and  one 
of  the  most  original  and  delightful  women." 

"Of  course,  original  and  delightful,  as  adjec 
tives  applied  to  women,  are  not  exactly  new,  but 
they  do  certainly  fit  the  woman  I  have  in  mind; 
yes,  Theodocia  Melvin  is  that  and  a  great  many 
other  things  as  well." 

He  put  his  cup  down.  "Theodocia  Melvin!" 
he  said.  "Is  it  she  you  mean,  Mrs.  Melvin  of 
Paris?" 

"How  delightful — so  you  know  'Docia'?" 
Madame  Jay-San  answered,  her  eyes  twinkling. 
"Yes,  of  Paris,  of  Dublin,  New  York,  St.  Peters 
burg,  and  any  and  every  other  place  on  the  top 


58  SUE    CHUC 

of  this  globe  of  ours.  Tell  me,  how  and  where 
did  you  meet  her?" 

The  Doctor  hesitated  for  the  fraction  of  a 
second,  then  answered:  "Well,  I  saw  her  rather 
recently  in  Berlin,  just  before  my  return  to  Amer 
ica  last  fall." 

Madame  Jay  had  noticed  his  hesitation  and 
drawn  several  quick  conclusions,  but  she  only 
said:  "We  are  to  thank  the  gods,  you  and  I  and 
all  of  Theodocia's  friends,  for  her,  aren't  we? 
She  has  been  to  me  the  source  of  endless  amuse 
ment,  interest,  and  delight  since  the  day  I  met 
her.  No,  I  do  not  see  her  often,  but  we  occa 
sionally  write  and  through  mutual  friends  I  hear 
of  her  often.  Did  she  know  that  you  were  to 
come  here?  But  no,  of  course  she  could  not,  as 
it  was  not  even  thought  of  at  that  time. 

"Let  me  give  you  another  cup.  Are  you  eating 
at  the  right  times  and  of  the  right  food?"  And 
at  his  conscience-stricken  look  she  shook  her  fin 
ger  at  him.  "No?  You  stand  convicted  without 
a  word.  Truly  you  'superior  beings'  are  the  veri 
est  children  in  many  things.  I  suppose  it  does 
not  present  itself  to  you  that  if  you  get  ill  you 
will  be  placing  us  all  in  a  dreadful  state  of  bother; 
that  you  may  even  spoil  that  dear  Doctor's  vaca 
tion  and  bring  her  back  before  she  has  had  it, 
in  fact. 


SUE    CHUC  59 

"Now,"  counting  upon  her  fingers,  "first — 
meals  at  any  hour  that  is  convenient;  second,  any 
kind  of  meals;  third,  working  day  and  night; 
fourth,  new  climate  and  water — you  don't  drink 
the  water  ?"  she  demanded  sharply.  "No,  that's 
well.  And  last,  but  not  least,  you  have  no  one 
here  with  whom  you  can  talk  over  things.  I've 
always  claimed  that  was  the  weak  point  where 
a  European  was  alone  at  the  head  of  any  native 
work;  oh,  yes,  you  count  as  European,  you  are 
only  native  in  birth,  so  you  have  had  loneliness 
added  to  the  others." 

He  put  his  head  back  and  laughed,  heartily, 
but  he  felt  better  for  the  expression  of  kind  and 
almost  motherly  interest  she  had  shown  him.  The 
soft  voice  with  its  beautiful  English  intonation 
was  such  a  joy  to  his  ears,  tortured  with  the  sounds 
of  the  language  spoken  in  the  Province,  notori 
ously  the  harshest  and  most  grating  of  the  endless 
dialects.  Every  motion  he  made,  every  tone  of 
his  voice,  was  to  her  a  shock,  so  like,  so  exactly 
like  were  they  to  her  brother's.  As  she  looked 
at  him  she  could  have  believed  herself  back  thirty- 
four  years  and  enacting  very  much  such  a  scene 
with  her  brother,  who  had  come  to  her  looking 
as  this  man  did,  and  her  heart  beat  so  strongly 
that  she  feared  it  would  be  noticed.  Surely  it 
could  not  be,  the  fates  did  play  tricks,  life  was 


60  SUE    CHUC 

a  succession  of  surprises,  but  this  thing  could  not 
be — it  was  impossible,  improbable;  and  yet — she 
came  back  to  the  present  with  a  start  to  hear  him 
say: 

"But  I  fear  this  interests  you  little.  My  sis 
ter  is " 

"Yes,  tell  me  of  your  sister;  is  she  much 
younger  than  you?  Oh,  yes,  I  remember  now; 
it  is  of  the  little  girl  you  adopted  and  whom  you 
call  sister  that  you  are  telling  me.  Indeed  I  am 
interested." 

His  eyes  lit  up  as  he  took  out  a  letter  from  his 
coat  pocket  and  from  between  the  folds  took  a 
tiny  photograph  and  held  it  toward  her.  Madame 
Jay  looked  at  it  long,  with  a  growing  expression 
of  pleasure. 

"That  is  a  rare  type,  is  it  not?  And  what  won 
derful,  marvelous  eyes!  Always  has  that  been 
attractive  to  me — a  face  so  possessed,  as  it  were, 
by  the  beauty  of  the  eyes  that  one  simply 
never  thinks  of  any  other  feature.  Would  I 
be  seeming  impertinent  or  unduly  inquisitive  if 
I  asked  you  to  read  me  some  of  the  letter?  To 
my  mind  one  gains  a  better  idea  of  another  by 
hearing  a  letter,  almost,  than  by  seeing  a  por 
trait,  especially  if  that  letter  was  written  only 
for  the  eyes  of  one  person  and  that  not  the  in 
quisitive  one." 


SUE    CHUC  6 1 

"I  should  ask  to  read  it  all  to  you,  if  you 
would  like  to  hear  it."  And  unfolding  the  sheet 
he  began: 

"New  York,  May  ist. 
"FuN  DEAR: 

"You  will  have  seen  from  the  letter  sent  you 
that  your  small  sister  is  getting  on  in  her  work, 
and  yesterday  I  was  promoted,  owing  in  part  to 
the  sudden  indisposition  of  one  of  the  assistants, 
to  the  exalted  post  of  scullery-maid-in-ordinary 
to  his  kingship,  Dr.  Martin,  and  won  a  glance 
of  approval  from  him  because,  at  a  critical  mo 
ment,  I  kept  my  head  and  attended  strictly  to 
business  during  an  operation. 

"He  did  not  and  shall  not  know  that  after 
ward,  in  the  privacy  of  the  slop  room,  I  was 
most  ignominiously  seasick,  and  then,  to  add  to 
my  misdemeanor,  had  a  mild  fit  of  'whoops' — 
the  hospital  slang  for  hysterics  here — so  this 
morning  Miss  Johns  called  me  into  her  sanctum 
and  told  me  that  until  the  other  girl — she's  thirty- 
five  if  she's  a  day — had  recovered,  I  could  take 
her  place.  After  my  return  they — meaning  the 
gods  of  the  machine  here — would  consider  my 
permanent  promotion,  etc.,  etc. 

"She  did  look  at  me  pretty  sharply,  and  the 
knowledge  that  my  pale  cheeks  and  tell-tale  eyes 
might  give  me  away  helped  me  to  get  some  color 


62  SUE    CHUC 

into  my  face,  and  nothing  was  said  about  them. 
She  is  not  at  all  a  bad  sort,  and  if  only  she  would 
drop  that  air  of  superiority  would  be,  I  think,  real 
nice  and  sort  of  human;  and  she  is  a  perfect  won 
der  as  a  disciplinarian. 

"Was  so  disappointed  that  your  Dr.  Ray  did 
not  look  me  up;  but  she  had  to  go  dashing  over 
to  London  on  an  unexpected  matter  of  business, 
and  wrote  me  a  nice  letter  explaining,  and  added 
that  she  hoped  to  see  me  on  her  return. 

"Two  of  the  girls  from  Miss  Elliot's  came  to 
see  me,  and  I  think  they  were  almost  horrified 
out  of  their  clothes  to  find  me  in  my  uniform  and 
see  the  condition  of  my  hands,  which  are  rather 
sights.  They  tried  hard  not  to  seem  condescend 
ing,  and  I  breathed  a  sigh  of  relief  when  they 
left;  whole  continents  lie  between  us  now;  we 
simply  do  not  speak  the  same  language  any  more. 
But  I'm  not  sorry  we  don't — my  life  is  going  to 
be  fuller  and  richer  than  theirs,  and  I'm  going 
to  get  closer  to  the  real  things  in  life  than  they 
ever  can. 

"You  remember  my  telling  you  of  the  jolly  girl 
with  the  dark  red  hair?  We  have  been  great 
chums,  and,  as  we  have  the  same  hours  and  half- 
day  off,  we  have  great  times.  Last  half-day  we 
spent  in  the  park,  and  it  did  seem  so  good  to  get 
away  from  the  sights  and  smells  at  the  hospital. 


SUE    CHUC  63 

Would  you  not  think  that,  after  the  alley  days, 
little  matters  of  smells  would  be  indifferent  to 
me?  I  believe  I  asked  you  that  before — and,  by 
the  way,  you  know  you  are  shockingly  derelict  in 
answering  my  questions.  That's  always  the  way 
I  find  it  with  my  letter-writing:  one  asks  a  ques 
tion  in  all  earnestness,  the  question  may  be  even 
of  a  most  interesting  nature  to  the  one  asking,  and 
written  at  a  white  heat;  the  one  getting  the  letter 
calmly  ignores  it,  if  to  him  it  makes  no  appeal  or 
carries  no  particular  suggestion  of  'hurry-up.'  I'm 
planning  to  live  with  my  few  friends  within  a 
half-hour's  journey  some  day,  and  to  see  them 
always  at  tea  time — then  no  more  letters. 

"I  am  studying  hard  and  devoting  almost 
every  spare  moment  to  the  work  I've  started  on. 
Very  occasionally  I  play  truant  and  get  out  an 
old  favorite,  but  I  am  so  anxious  to  go  through 
with  flying  colors,  you  know. 

"I've  a  secret  to  tell  you  soon,  maybe  by  Fall; 
be  sure  you  get  up  a  great  interest  in  it  between 
now  and  then. 

"Was  so  much  amused  recently  to  learn  the 
'why'  of  most  of  the  girls  here  having  taken  up 
nursing.  It  was  one  of  our  rest  times,  and  there 
were  seven  or  eight  girls  in  the  room,  all  more 
or  less  talking  at  once,  when  one  of  them  turned 
to  me  and  asked  me  if  I  did  not  think  Dr.  Dane, 


64  SUE    CHUC 

one  of  the  internes,  had  lovely  eyes,  and  I  truth 
fully  answered  that  I'd  never  noticed;  whereupon 
there  was  an  absolute  hush  and  they  all  looked  at 
me  as  though  I  had  suddenly  become  some 
stranger,  and  the  one  who  had  asked  the  question 
said:  'Look  here,  Sue;  what  did  you  want  to 
learn  nursing  for?'  Why,  to  nurse,  of  course' 
— they  all  giggled.  'Why,  did  not  the  rest  of 
you?' 

"  'Not  on  your  tin-type !'  said  the  first  one — 
she's  the  one  who  introduces  all  of  the  slang.  'I 
am  learning  because  it  gives  a  girl  who  has  to 
earn  her  living  a  chance  to  meet  some  nice  men. 
Why,  lots  of  the  nurses  have  married  rich  men.' 

"Suppose  I  looked  blank,  for  they  laughed  at 
at  me ;  but  what  a  funny  attitude,  Fun !  Do  all 
girls  think  only  of  getting  married  to  rich  men? 
You  would  have  been  amused  if  you  could  have 
heard  the  tales  they  told  of  this  one  and  that, 
who  had  met  the  fairy  prince  under  every  condi 
tion  from  typhoid  to  mumps,  nursed  him  into 
strength  of  body  and  apparent  feebleness  of  mind, 
and  married  him;  and  the  real  heroine  in  the  eyes 
of  all  is,  it  seems  now,  as  they  put  it,  riding  in  her 
own  carriage  with  coachman  and  footman,  hav 
ing,  as  nearly  as  I  can  make  out,  broken  up  a 
home  to  do  it.  A  case  of  sick  man,  tired  out  de 
voted  wife  ordered  to  take  a  much-needed  rest, 


SUE    CHUC  65 

young  fresh-complexioned  nurse.  I  heard  Miss 
Johns  say  in  regard  to  the  case  that  any  woman 
was  a  fool  to  let  her  husband  be  nursed  by  an 
other  woman  unless  she  was  on  hand  most  of 
the  time,  and  if  she  did  do  so  she  ought  to  lose 
him. 

* 'Horrid,  all  that,  Fun;  don't  you  think?  Lis 
tening  to  the  chatter  here,  one  would,  if  one  let 
oneself  believe  it,  become  very  disillusioned,  and 
the  talk  about  the  doctors  and  their  feminine  pa 
tients  ! — it  makes  me  sick.  Must  one  become  cold 
and  hard,  and  unbelieving  and  distrustful,  Fun? 
The  price  seems  to  me  a  big  one  to  pay  for  the 
acquisition  of  a  little  knowledge.  Is  that  the  life- 
lesson  we  have  to  learn?  What's  the  good  of 
anything,  if  it  is?  I  felt  pretty  blue  after  that 
talk,  then  I  resolutely  put  the  entire  thing  aside. 
After  all,  what  did  it  matter  to  me  what  a  num 
ber  of  silly  girls  said?  I  had  my  life  to  live  and 
knew  how  I  intended  to  live  it;  and  it  had  noth 
ing  whatever  to  do  with  rich  men  patients  or 
deceived  wives. 

"I  am  so  grateful,  Fun  dear,  that  I  am  free 
to  write  you  my  perplexities;  it's  such  an  escape 
valve;  if  you  see  me  getting  changed  for  the 
worse,  please  bring  me  up  with  a  round  turn, 
won't  you? 

"Please  do  not  worry  about  the  food  here;  did 


66  SUE    CHUC 

not  mean  to  let  the  cat  out  of  the  bag  about  its 
occasional  queerness,  and  I  am  in  excellent  health; 
but,  if  I  ever  have  the  say  about  the  commissariat 
of  a  hospital,  there  are  several  things  that  will  be 
different,  I  can  assure  you;  all  of  which,  coming 
from  the  one  time  slave  of  old  Mai-den,  is  vastly 
funny,  don't  you  think? 

"In  the  Fall  my  chum  and  I  are  going  to  hear 
all  of  the  good  music  we  can  and  to  see  all  of  the 
lovely  pictures.  We  have  planned  enough  to  fill 
every  day  of  the  week,  so,  as  we  have  only  one 
lone  afternoon  of  a  week,  we  are  going  to  draw 
straws  to  see  how  it  shall  be  arranged.  You 
would  like  her,  Fun;  she  is  our  kind  and  yet,  al 
though  she  is  in  deadly  earnest,  she  fairly  bub 
bles  over  with  fun,  and  many's  the  time  we  go 
into  gales  of  laughter  over  the  little  funny  things 
that  crop  up,  to  keep  from  weeping  and  raging 
over  all  of  the  misery;  it's  choice,  you  know. 

"I  had  almost  forgotten  to  scold  you  for  not 
writing  me  details  more  fully,  but  I  seem  to  know 
that  you  are  disturbed  and  busy.  Not  feeling  ill, 
are  you?  I  do  not  dare  let  myself  get  to  think 
ing  on  that  possibility  or  I  might  do  something 
rash,  so  if  you  don't  want  me  to  do  the  rash  thing, 
which  would  mean  go  right  away  out  to  you,  bet 
ter  write  me  more  fully.  And,  by  the  way,  you 
never  described  the  furnishing  of  your  rooms  or 


SUE    CHUC  67 

told  me  more  about  the  family  you  live  with  upon 
that  hill  top  than  those  first  casual  lines  in  the 
second  letter.  Can't  say  you  shirked  on  the  hos 
pital,  though;  I  know  that  like  a  book  down  to 
the  supply  on  hand,  at  your  last  writing,  of  the 
gauze;  but  I  want  some  of  the  homey  things. 
What  a  perfect  old  love  Dr.  Ah-Fing  must  be! 
I  could  hug  him." 

As  Fun  finished,  Madame  Jay-San,  who  had 
smiled  many  times  during  the  reading  of  the  let 
ter,  laughed  outright.  "The  dear  child!  How 
I  like  her;  what  an  honest,  candid  nature  it  is, 
and  loving.  Yes,  there  is  going  to  be  a  fine  de 
velopment  there  of  character  and  purpose — a 
quick  temper  ?" 

Fun  nodded.     "Yes,  but  not  vindictive." 

"All  good,  can't  endure  the  saints  and  never 
found  that  they  accomplished  much  when  it  came, 
right  down  to  hard  work,  however  exemplary 
their  example  may  be.  It's  faith  with  work  that 
counts. 

"Of  course,  you  know  what  that  surprise  is 
going  to  be?" 

Fun  laughed.  "You  think  she  is  taking  up  the 
medical  course?" 

Madame  Jay  assented. 

"I  shall  not  make  any  objections,  of  course,  as 
I  think  her  heart  is  set  upon  it  and,  too,  the 


68  SUE    CHUC 

nurse's  post  can  be  more  readily  filled  than  the 
physician's  here;  besides,  our  own  women  are  rap 
idly  progressing  and  make  excellent  nurses." 

"The  very  best,"  Madame  answered.  "As  a  race 
we  have  a  freedom  from  nerves,  you  know.  All 
of  these  centuries  of  control  have  done  their  work 
for  us.  Of  course,  we  of  the  mixed  blood  pay 
the  price  of  that  fact,  but  the  others — well,  the 
law  of  compensation  works,  as  Docia  would  say." 


CHAPTER   VIII 


ADAME  Jay  watched  the  Doctor 
carefully,  saw  that  he  had  proper 
nourishing  meals  at  approximately 
right  hours,  and  gave  him  compan 
ionship  and  the  intelligent  hearing 
of  his  perplexities,  so  that  by  the 
end  of  July  he  had  recovered  his  wonted  physical 
tone. 

The  life  of  the  great  city  was  a  constant  in 
terest  to  him,  and  he  realized  how,  in  spite  of  his 
years  in  San  Francisco's  Chinese  Quarter,  he  was 
foreign  to  much  of  it,  and  set  himself  diligently 
to  learn  the  cause  of  many  of  the  defects  he  saw. 
His  appreciation  of  the  qualities  of  loyalty, 
generosity,  and  patience  that  his  people  evidenced 
brought  always  a  quick  glow  of  joy  to  him,  and 
he  realized  how  the  difference  in  manners,  cus 
toms,  and  language  had  clouded  the  judgment  of 
the  western  world  in  regard  to  his  race. 

His  first  opportunity  to  meet  one  of  the  for 
eign  missionaries  came  in  August  when  two  of 
them  came,  en  route  to  the  north,  and  he  found 


70  SUE    CHUC 

them  kindly,  intelligent  men,  earnest  and  filled  with 
zeal,  and  while  he  doubted  still  the  amount  of 
good,  from  the  viewpoint  of  achievement,  they 
were  accomplishing  in  their  chosen  field  as  physi 
cians  to  the  soul  only,  he  still  felt  himself  going 
out  in  sympathy  and  admiration  of  their  efforts. 

One  thing  disturbed  him:  A  native  nurse,  a 
pretty,  very  capable  young  woman  whose  progress 
in  her  work  had  been  so  remarkable  that  Dr.  Ray, 
before  leaving,  had  recommended  her  especially 
to  his  care  and  personal  direction,  had  grown  into 
the  habit  of  waiting  for  him  on  varous  pretexts, 
all  plausible  enough,  dealing  directly  with  some 
part  of  the  work,  but  likewise  all  sufficiently  sim 
ple  to  need  little  talk.  And  one  day,  after  a  pe 
culiarly  bad  night  of  disturbed  rest,  the  week  fol 
lowing  Madame  Jay's  departure,  when  he  reached 
his  office  and  found  Kue-Bow  waiting  for  him  and 
saw  how  her  eyes  lightened  and  the  pale  tea-rose 
shade  of  her  rounded  cheeks  flushed  to  soft  shell- 
pink,  the  man  in  him  rushed  to  the  surface  and  the 
old  demon  of  desire  and  the  loneliness  of  his  life 
made  it  difficult  for  him  to  answer  her  questions. 

He  fought  it  and  conquered  for  the  time,  but 
the  prompting  voice  came  again  and  yet  again, 
and  that  night  as  he  lay  on  his  long  chair  on  the 
veranda,  looking  out  at  the  moon-touched  surface 
of  the  deep  and  sluggish  river,  across  the  roofs 


SUE    CHUC  71 

of  the  great  city  at  his  feet,  from  which  rose  the 
confused,  deep-throated  murmur  broken  now  and 
then  by  the  sounds  of and ,  and  real 
ized  that  down  there  was  love  and  companionship, 
music  and  laughter,  that  even  the  very  beggars  in 
the  streets  had  what  his  heart  and  body  were 
craving,  the  thought  of  Kue-Bow  came  to  him 
again.  Why  should  he  not  reach  out  his  hand 
and  pluck  this  rose  that  leaned  toward  him,  en 
joy  its  sweetness?  Why  should  he  be  alone  and 
lonely?  Surely  his  work  would  be  the  better  if 
his  body  and  heart  were  not  starved  of  their 
rightful  due,  body  and  heart — ah,  that  was  it! 
Were  it  body  and  heart,  but  he  knew  the  desire 
for  what  it  was — desire  of  the  soft,  rounded  body, 
for  the  feel  of  the  satin-fine  flesh  of  the  arms 
about  him. 

No,  here  was  not  the  answer  his  nature  craved 
of  its  questioning.  For  him  there  must  be  the 
full  joy,  no  stinted  measure;  it  must  be  a  union 
not  a  scattering  of  force — when  the  fates  willed  it 
there  would  come  into  his  life  the  one  who  would 
be  his  other  self  and  they  two  would  in  their  mat 
ing  be  a  perfect  One.  Until  then,  why,  the  flesh 
should  be  disciplined  into  subjection.  After  once 
winning  out  of  the  slough  he  would  not  again  be 
drawn  back.  His  lips  curved  in  self-scorn  of  the 
sophistries  he  had  advanced:  "His  work  would 


72  SUE    CHUC 

be  better,  forsooth,  if  he  gave  in  to  the  demands 
of  his  flesh,  his  brain  freed  from  the  obsession  of 
desire  would  be  clearer,  better  fitted  to  grapple 
with  the  problems  his  work  presented."  No,  his 
scientific  knowledge  alone  taught  him  differently; 
taught  him  that  conserved  desire  brought  added 
force,  added  clearness  of  vision;  that  a  mighty 
desire  force  directed  into  intellectual  channels  gave 
a  mighty  power — but,  could  he  master  himself? 
Was  there  something  hidden  deep  in  his  heart 
that  called  to  him  with  voice  sufficiently  strong 
to  drown  that  other  voice,  a  something  that  was 
the  goal  to  be  striven  for,  the  thing  that,  had  he 
a  surety  of  some  time  possessing  it,  would  make 
this  devil's  tattoo  upon  his  nerves  and  senses  a 
nothing  to  be  brushed  aside  as  one  would  brush 
aside  a  buzzing  and  troublesome  insect  that  dis 
turbed  one  when  one  wished  to  sleep?  With  a 
shout  almost  savage  he  answered,  "Yes !"  shouted 
it  into  the  night  out  across  the  silver  plain  of  the 
moon-bathed  river  to  the  distant  hills.  "Yes! 
and  yes  again!" 


"September  30,    188 — . 
"Mv  DEAR  MADAME  JAY-SAN: 

"Many  thanks   for  your  kind  letter,   and  am 
very  glad  that  the  competent  nurse  I  sent  you  has 


SUE   CHUG  73 

adequately  filled  the  place  you  have  needed  her 
for.  Yes,  you  can  keep  her  until  the  spring.  We 
now  have  several  really  good  nurses  and  a  num 
ber  who  are  improving;  to  be  sure  Kue-Bow  was 
one  of,  if  not  the  best,  but  as  I  said  when  I  sent 
her  to  you,  because  she  was  what  she  was,  I 
wanted  you  to  have  her. 

"To  your  kind  inquiry  as  to  my  health,  I  can 
assure  you  that  it  is  apparently  established;  have 
settled  down  into  harness,  got  acclimated,  and 
the  blessed  coming  of  cooler  weather  has  made 
me  feel  like  my  old  self  again. 

"Yes,  dear  friend,  you  were  right  in  what  you 
surmised.  There  had  come  a  condition  that  1 
had  to  face,  and,  as  always  happens  where  the 
psychology  of  the  question  comes  into  play,  it 
came  when  I  was  not  at  my  best  in  fighting  ways ; 
or  is  it  that  the  not  being  at  one's  best  attracts 
the  condition?  Confess  my  brain,  from  want  of 
rest  from  puzzling  over  that  same  question,  feels 
not  unlike  some  of  our  lint,  and  am  humiliated 
by  having  to  admit  that  I  have  not  arrived  at 
any  conclusion  my  reason  accepts.  But  I  am 
again  normal  in  health  and  spirits,  working  hard 
with  deep  interest  in  the  work,  and  hope  to  show 
our  friend  upon  her  return  in  another  fourteen 
months  that  she  was  justified  in  the  confidence 
she  has  shown  me. 


74  SUE    CHUC 

"Am  deeply  in  your  debt  for  the  huge  box  of 
books  you  sent  me.  They  are  now  filling  the 
shelves  of  a  new  teakwood  case  in  my  sitting 
room,  and  am  interested  to  see  the  annotations 
on  margins  and  fly  leaves  which  I  find,  to  my  de 
light,  agree  with  my  own  point  of  view  in  a 
truly  wonderful  way.  If  they  are  your  brother's 
notes,  as  I  think  they  must  be,  we,  he  and  I,  are 
singularly  in  accord  in  our  views. 

"Am  I  to  have  the  pleasure  of  seeing  you  both 
this  winter?  I  trust  so.  Probably  you  never  will 
know  how  much  your  visit  did  for  me  this  sum 
mer;  should  have  been  ill  of  a  certainty,  had  you 
not  come  when  you  did — such  great  babies  are 
the  strongest  of  us  men  at  times,  and  in  regard 
to  certain  things.  Yes,  I  admit  my  loneliness — 
it  will  be  better  when  Dr.  Ray  returns. 

"How  right  you  were  when  you  said  I  am 
only  Chinese  by  blood;  the  spirit  seems  different 
from  those  others  of  my  race  I  contact,  but  I 
feel  deeply  my  relationship,  notwithstanding. 

"Am  inclosing  a  letter  from  Sue,  just  received, 
as  you  asked  me  to  do.     Again  many  and  deep 
thanks  for  all  of  your  thoughtful  kindness. 
"Yours  most  sincerely, 

"AH-DAY-FUN." 


CHAPTER   IX 


iHEN  the  letter  with  its  inclosure 
reached  Madame  Jay  she  dropped 
her  work  to  read  it,  and,  as  she 
read,  murmured:  "Ah,  the  dear 
boy;  yes,  I  thought  I  had  caught 
the  situation  of  unrest  he  was  un 
dergoing  ;  and  how  like,  how  like  he  is  to  the  other 
one  I"  Her  keen  intuition  had  caught  the  situation 
when  she  saw  Kue-Bow's  poorly  controlled  emo 
tion  at  the  times  that  any  reference  to  Dr.  Fun 
was  made,  and  her  kind  heart  and  broad  charity 
had  made  her  in  mind  feel  the  stress  of  the 
warring  forces  in  the  Doctor  and  the  more  simple 
elemental  desire  of  the  woman. 

It  had  been  with  a  sigh  for  poor,  weak  human 
ity  that  she  had  dismissed  the  situation  from  her 
attention.  At  any  rate  the  girl  was  with  her  and 
with  her  she  should  remain  if  tact  and  under 
standing  could  keep  her.  For  the  time,  evidently, 
the  Doctor  had  conquered. 

She  turned  to  the  letter  from  Sue  to  Fun  and 
read: 


76  SUE   CHUC 

"August  1 5th,  New  York. 
"FuN  DEAR: 

"Had  thought  I  could  keep  that  secret  until 
November,  but  find  it's  just  fairly  scorching  a 
hole  in  my  consciousness,  so  must  get  rid  of  it. 
Have  made  arrangements  to  enter  the  Fall 
classes  at  the  college;  just  could  not  bear  to  go 
on  with  the  nursing.  That  is  all  very  well,  but  it's 
not  what  I  want,  and  it  does  not  lead,  except 
very,  very  indirectly,  to  where  I  must  be  to  be 
happy. 

"This  will  mean,  I  know,  another  year  added 
to  the  time  before  I  join  you,  but  that  can't  be 
helped  now,  and,  as  Miss  Johns  said  when  I  told 
her:  'Don't  be  sorry  for  yourself,  Sue;  this  will 
not  have  been  a  wasted  year,  you  will  find,' 
which  is  true,  in  a  sense;  but,  you  see,  Miss  J. 
does  not  know  all  of  the  reasons  that  make  me  re 
gret  the  added  months. 

"Of  course,  you  want  to  know  about  how  I  am 
to  be  situated  when  I  leave  the  'comfort  and  pro 
tection  of  the  hospital' — always  feel  inclined  to 
sniff  when  I  read  that  sentence  in  the  prospectus. 
'Comfort,  protection' !  Umph !  Some  time  I  am 
going  to  unburden  my  mind  upon  that  subject. 
Now,  to  get  back  to  the  question : 

"First  let  me  tell  you  that  my  chum,  Stella 
Marks,  has  decided  to  follow  my  example  and 


SUE   CHUG  77 

leave  here  at  the  end  of  her  year,  and  we  will 
take  a  wee  apartment  together.  It's  already  de 
cided  upon.  Two  students  who  are  finishing  this 
year  have  it  now  and  remain  until  October  ist, 
when  we  will  take  it  over. 

"The  location,  from  the  standpoint  of  society, 
is  most  deplorable,  as  Miss  Elliot  would  say.  It 
is  a  bit  slummy,  I'll  admit,  but  it's  convenient  and 
not  too  crowded;  cheap,  and  with  a  number  of 
very  unusually  decent  sort  of  apartment  houses 
about,  considering — don't  know  how  well  you 
know  New  York,  but  your  map  will  show  you  the 
location,  on  Twenty-seventh  between  Lexington 
and  Third  Avenues. 

"The  flat  consists  of  a  diminutive  sitting  room 
with  a  bow  window  looking  out  on  Twenty-seventh 
Street;  a  bedroom  that  we  can,  by  tight  squeez 
ing,  get  two  very,  oh,  'very  single  beds  and  a  dress 
ing-stand  into,  with  a  window  likewise  on  Twen 
ty-seventh;  a  mere  speck  of  a  dining-room,  win 
dow  on  light-shaft;  a  kitchenette  that,  if  it  had 
not  a  door,  you'd  simply  fall  into  or  through  when 
you  rose  from  the  dining-table — if  you  were  not 
careful — and  discloses  a  view  of  a  microscopic 
gas  range  and  the  wee-est  of  sinks  you  would 
think  a  mere  closet,  with  a  window  also  on  the 
light-shaft;  a  bathroom  and  clothes  closet  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  hall — narrow  as  the  blade 


78  SUE    CHUC 

of  a  knife — that  is  the  quintessence  of  comfort, 
being  tiled  in  white  and  blue,  with  a  short,  dumpy 
tub  tucked  behind  the  door,  and  a  washstand 
slightly  larger  than  a  mush  bowl.  It's  awfully 
ducky,  though,  that  small  flat,  and  we  are  count 
ing  the  minutes  until  we  get  in  and  get  settled. 

"Stella,  owing  to  the  change  of  plans,  will  have 
to  watch  every  nickel,  because  her  money  was  sup 
posed  to  carry  her  through  the  nursing  classes 
only,  and  she  says  she  would  not  ask  her  aunt  for 
another  dollar,  if  she,  Stella,  had  to  go  charring 
for  a  living.  And,  although  I  have,  thanks  to 
you,  a  very  comfortable  income,  I  don't  want  to 
spend  an  unnecessary  cent,  because  I've  a  plan 
simmering  in  my  brain  that,  if  it  finally  comes 
to  a  boil,  I  shall  need  some  money  to  carry  out. 

"One  of  the  students  who  lives  in  the  flat  we 
are  to  have,  asked  us  to  go  out  to  a  week-end 
place  they  have  in  Westchester  County  a  fort 
night  ago,  and  we  got  permission  and  went. 

"Fun,  dear,  such  a  pretty  little  place  it  is;  only 
three-quarters  of  an  hour  from  New  York,  but 
just  as  real  country  as  you  would  find  anywhere. 
Woods  and  a  river,  meadows,  and  nice,  fat  black- 
and-white  cows  up  to  their  very  knees  in  grass; 
funny  snaky  fences  of  purple  gray  wood  that 
had  lichens  and  moss  on  in  the  shady  corners; 
stone  fences  with  blackberry  vines  climbing  over 


SUE    CHUC  79 

them;  and  a  real  stile;  and  at  the  edge  of  the 
meadow  on  a  slight  rise  of  ground  under  four 
big  horse-chestnut  trees  is  the  house — just  one 
room  with  open  bricked  fireplace,  bunks  built  in 
as  window  seats,  open  beams  to  the  low  roof — 
the  kind  of  windows  that  open  in  on  broad  ledges 
and  have  diamond-shaped  panes;  stained  floor 
with  some  rugs,  a  half-dozen  chairs  of  uold  hick 
ory,"  I  think  the  girls  called  them,  with  cush 
ions,  and  in  one  corner  a  door  leading  to  a  wire- 
screened  back  porch  which  is  kitchen  and  dining- 
room  in  one. 

A  little  shack  house  built  next  to  a  pool  is 
their  bath  house.  They  have  books  and  a  few 
pretty  pictures,  some  Indian  baskets  and  blankets, 
and  on  the  broad  window  ledges  earthenware 
bowls  and  pots  full  of  ferns,  curtains  of  wood- 
colored  burlap  with  hemstitched  hems,  all  as  sim 
ple  and  pretty  and  comfortable  as  can  be,  and 
they  have  no  end  of  home-made  conveniences  that 
just  suit  the  rustic  shack.  No  veranda,  but  the 
ground  leveled  under  the  big  trees  and  set  with 
huge  flat  stones  that  have  been  embedded  in  the 
earth  so  that  they  make  a  level  flooring,  and  there 
are  hammocks  swung  and  two  rustic  tables  and 
rustic  chairs. 

"The  little  house  is  literally  a  square,  boxlike 
place,  but  in  spite  of  that  it  is  pretty,  the  odd 


8o  SUE   CHUC 

windows  and  the  good  roof  line  save  the  day, 
and,  too,  the  situation,  almost  under  the  branches 
of  those  four  monster  trees. 

"We  got  to  the  'Castle' — that's  the  name;  de 
licious,  is  it  not  ? — at  five  o'clock.  We  'biked'  from 
the  station;  it's  about  a  mile  only.  After  Stella 
and  I  had  been  shown  over  the  'Castle,'  and  had 
things  explained  to  us,  we  all  went  down  to  the 
pool  and  had  a  swim,  then  came  back  and  got 
supper.  While  we  were  having  it,  the  nicest  old 
Chinaman,  who  keeps  house  for  some  New  York 
boys  a  ways  farther  down  the  road,  came  in  with 
fresh  milk  and  eggs  and  fruit  and  vegetables  to 
sell,  and  a  big  dish  of  cottage  cheese  as  a  gift. 

"He  is  truly  the  dearest  old  chap,  and  his  name 
is  Tonkey-Lo,  and  next  letter  I'll  tell  you  his  story 
and  how  six  years  ago  he  met  the  boys  and  came 
out  here  to  keep  house  for  them  and  bring  up 
'Bub,'  the  little  chap  the  boys  had  rescued  from 
the  slums.  It's  awfully  exciting  and  interesting. 

"I  talked  to  him  in  my  dialect,  which  it  seems 
is  his  own,  and  I  thought  he  was  going  to  fall 
upon  my  neck  and  weep,  so  delighted  was  he,  and 
I  explained  that  I  was  half  Chinese,  whereupon 
he  almost  had  a  fit,  he  was  so  thunderstruck;  and 
he  asked  me  all  manner  of  questions  and  grunted 
and  gurgled  like  a  bear  with  a  honeycomb. 

"The  girls  thought  it  a  huge  joke.    4Bub'  came 


SUE    CHUC  8 1 

/ 

hunting  him  up  after  he  had  been  there  a  half- 
hour,  and  you  never  saw  such  mutual  devotion, 
and  likewise  you  never  saw  such  a  beautiful  boy; 
about  eleven,  I  think,  with  a  mop  of  curls,  the 
hugest  black  eyes,  and  a  slender  little  figure  that 
is  as  straight  as  one  of  the  birch  saplings  in  the 
woods.  We  made  friends  immediately,  for  he  is 
a  friendly  boy  and  has  charming  manners,  which 
statement  will  make  you  .smile  when  you  read  his 
history. 

"The  following  two  days  were  spent  in  the 
woods  and  in  a  call  upon  Tonkey-Lo  and  Bub,  at 
which  time  we  met  the  older  boys  and  were  taken 
over  the  farm,  some  five  acres  only;  but  the  most 
complete  little  place  you  can  imagine,  all  the  work 
of  old  Tonkey-Lo.  The  older  boys  come  down 
each  week  over  Sunday  and  Bub  stays  all  the  time 
and  goes  to  school  in  the  village  near  the  station. 

"Just  hated  to  come  back,  it  was  all  so  lovely 
there,  but  the  girls  have  agreed  to  let  us  have  the 
'Castle'  during  their  absence  of  two  years  in  Eu 
rope.  They  had  intended  to  lock  it  up  and  leave 
it  in  Tonkey-Lo's  care,  and  are  only  too  glad  to 
let  us  have  it  instead ;  so  we  will  be  in  clover  with 
our  town  flat  and  this  dear  place  to  come  to.  The 
Chinaman  will  sell  us  everything  we  want  in  the 
way  of  green  stuff,  milk,  eggs,  and  chickens,  and 
was  overjoyed  to  hear  that  we  were  going  to 


82  SUE    CHUG 

have  it.     He  has  quite  evidently  taken  a  fancy 
to  yours  truly. 

"Now,  Fun  dear,  you  can't  complain  of  lacking 
the  knowledge  of  any  of  the  details  of  my  life, 
can  you?  About  the  furnishing  of  the  flat  we 
are  going  to  take,  more  anon.  I  am  so  happy, 
write  and  tell  me  you  are  glad  I  decided  to  change 
our  plans,  please,  please  do,  else  I  won't  feel  as 
happy. 

"I  think  from  what  you  tell  me  that  your  Ma 
dame  Jay  must  be  a  dear.  Will  she,  do  you  think, 
like  me?  Your 

"SUE." 

Madame  Jay  folded  the  letter  and  replaced  it 
in  its  envelope.  Her  face  was  wistful;  how  she 
would  have  loved  such  a  daughter!  And  with  a 
sigh  for  what  might  not  be,  she  sat  down  to  an 
swer  the  Doctor's  letter. 


CHAPTER   X 


ilX  weeks  later  another  one  from 
Fun  inclosed  the  last  to  him  from 
Sue,  and  Kue-Bow  brought  it  with 
the  other  mail,  making  pretexts  to 
remain  at  hand  until  Madame  Jay 
had  opened  the  Doctor's  letter. 
At  the  inclosure  she  glanced  sharply  and  the  full 
lips  quivered  ever  so  slightly.  Madame  Jay, 
aware  of  her  scrutiny  and  feeling  the  younger 
woman's  unhappiness,  said,  as  she  looked  over  the 
few  lines  that  the  Doctor  had  written : 

"Oh,  Kue-Bow,  Doctor  Fun  wishes  me  to  tell 
you  that  he  is  very  much  obliged  for  the  handker 
chiefs  that  you  embroidered  for  him,  and  will  send 
you  .a  line  of  thanks  soon.  He  is  well  and  en 
joying  the  cool  weather." 

Kue's  mouth  drooped  pathetically,  and  she  went 
out  of  the  room. 

"Ah!  Theodocia  is  right  when  she  says  'what 
a  soul-shuffling  there  has  been!''  Madame  Jay 
sighed  and  turned  to  Sue's  letter. 

"New  York,  September  i6th. 
"I  do  hope,  Fun  dear,  that  your  letter  telling 


84  SUE   CHUC 

me  I  am  quite  forgiven  is  nearly  here,  for  my 
heart  is  not  at  rest,  fearing  you  are  disappointed 
in  me  or  think  me  presumptuous — you're  not? — 
you  don't? 

"I  promised  to  tell  you  the  story  of  the  old 
Chinaman  and  the  boys  in  that  letter  I  sent  a 
month  ago.  You're  interested,  I  know;  and  since 
then  I've  seen  them  all  three  times,  for  we  have 
gone  to  the  *  Castle'  each  week-end  but  one  since 
I  wrote. 

"Well,  it  seems,  some  six  or  nearly  seven  years 
ago  these  boys,  the  older  ones,  were  wharf  rats 
and  about  as  amphibious,  I  should  judge,  and 
made  their  living  selling  papers.  Had  a  place  they 
called  'Cubby'  up  under  the  stringers  of  one  of 
the  old  wharves  and  there  held  great  feasts. 
Their  doings  were  winked  at  by  the  river  police 
because  they  were  such  clever  little  scamps  and 
helped  the  R.  P.  to  many  bits  of  information 
they  would  have  found  it  hard  to  get  without  them. 

"They,  the  boys,  had  a  friend  called  Faith- 
Hope — that's  a  story  all  by  itself,  however,  and 
I  won't  go  deeply  into  it  here.  She  was  a  slum 
child,  and,  according  to  them,  the  greatest  won 
der  of  the  age,  and  she  and  a  friend  of  hers,  an- 
ottar  forlorn  slummy,  used  to  come  down  and 
visrc  the  boys  at  'Cubby,'  and  suddenly,  out  of 
the  clear  sky,  there  turned  up  some  rich  relatives, 


SUE    CHUC  85 

and  that  made  the  'big  change,'  as  the  boys  call 
it,  for  one  of  them  was  a  wonderful  woman  who 
interested  herself  in  the  boys  and  has  helped  them 
to  get  up  in  the  world. 

"Old  Tonkey-Lo  was  the  keeper  of  a  slop  shop 
down  near  the  wharf  and  their  landlord  when 
they  decided  to  take  a  real  room  and  give  up 
4 Cubby/  and  it  was  at  that  time  that  little  Bub 
was  adopted  by  them  and  became  old  Tonkey- 
Lo's  darling  and  one  of  the  great  incentives  to 
their  getting  on. 

"I  have  laughed  myself  ill  over  the  accounts 
of  their  life;  the  turning  of  little  Bub  into  a  Lit 
tle  Lord  Fauntleroy,  and  the  presentation  of  him 
in  that  character  to  the  assembled  guests  at  a 
Christmas  dinner  at  the  home  of  Faith-Hope, 
where  she  lived  with  a  'lady  she  had  adopted' 
and  a  big  man  called  big  Tom,  who  wanted  to 
adopt  her.  Then  the  rich  relatives  took  Faith- 
Hope  home  to  their  home  in  England,  or  Ireland, 
I've  forgotten  which,  now.  The  boys  were  heart 
broken,  but  determined  they  would  go  to  work 
in  good,  hard  earnest  to  carry  out  the  plans  they 
had  talked  over  with  Faith-Hope.  And  the  *won- 
derful  woman'  had,  before  leaving,  given  them 
the  five  acres  and  a  shack,  because  they  wanted 
a  place  in  the  country  to  bring  up  Bub  in  and 
where  old  Tonkey-Lo  could  have  a  garden  and 


86  SUE    CHUC 

chickens  and  be  free  from  further  persecution 
from  the  roughs  of  the  city-front  who  had  nearly 
killed  him  once  when  he  was  trying  to  save  little 
Bub  from  them. 

"The  boys  have  a  variety  of  gifts:  the  oldest 
one,  Casey,  who  is  the  acknowledged  leader,  is 
a  genius  with  clay,  and  intends  being  a  sculptor 
some  day;  one  is  to  be  a  horticulturist;  one  an 
architect;  one  a  mining  engineer;  and  Bub — well, 
Bub  is  going  to  be  a  dear,  beautiful,  kindly  sponge 
if  I  don't  mistake.  Not  a  vicious  drop  of  blood 
in  the  boy,  but  likewise  not  a  drop  of  what  they 
call  'hustle' — a  dreamer,  an  idler,  but  oh,  so  lov 
able! 

"It  is  amusing  to  see  the  airs  of  protection  the 
boys  put  on  over  him,  and  to  old  Tonkey-Lo  he 
is  the  sun,  moon,  and  stars.  Later,  when  we 
become  regular  week-enders,  I  am  going  to  find 
out  by  observation  and  questioning  if  my  surmise 
is  correct. 

"Of  course,  the  boy  is  only  a  child,  and  they 
one  and  all  spoil  him  utterly — no,  that  is  not  the 
word  I  want,  for  he  is  absolutely  not  spoiled;  but 
they  do  love  him  so  that  they  keep  him  in  a  sort 
of  mental  and  spiritual  cotton-wool  existence,  and 
of  course  that  may  explain  things.  I  know  you 
are  laughing  at  me  and  thinking,  'the  young  philos 
opher,  listen  to  her!'  And  I'm  not  at  all  certain 


SUE    CHUC  87 

when  I  say  he  is  or  will  be  a  'sponge,'  that  I  mean 
what  most  people  mean  when  they  use  that  word. 
But  you  know  that  there  is  a  kind  of  nature  that 
can  accept  and  accept  forever  and  a  day,  that  has 
no  sense  of  responsibility,  no  initiative,  goes 
through  life  a  sort  of  'materialized  bit  of  nega 
tivity' — don't  you  dare  to  laugh  so!  I  have  put 
quotation  marks,  and  I  have  often  puzzled  over 
what  it  meant  that  such  natures  should  be.  Are 
they  just  the  objects  created  to  draw  to  them  the 
surplus  energy  and  tenderness,  the  necessary  some 
thing  to  expend  the  love  and  sense  of  helpfulness 
we  most  of  us  have  in  our  hearts  upon,  and  that 
must  find  expression? 

"There  flashed  over  me  just  now  the  thought 
that  some  one  who  did  not  know  me  well,  or  my 
plans  for  helping  later,  when  I  could  do  so  in 
telligently,  might  with  reason  say  of  me  that  / 
was  a  'sponge,'  but  I  am  not,  Fun;  oh,  I  am  not. 
I  mean  to  pay  back  every  cent  with  interest,  you 
know  that — you  believe  that,  don't  you? 

"The  last  time  I  went  to  the  'Castle'  I  had 
quite  a  long  talk  with  Tonkey-Lo  and  answered 
some  half  hundred  questions,  I  verily  believe.  At 
first  I  thought  he  was  just  curious,  but  I  have 
come  to  the  conclusion  that  he  is  asking  with  an 
object.  I  told  him  all  about  Mai-den  and  what 
I  knew  of  my  childhood,  but  I  did  not  say  any- 


88  SUE    CHUC 

thing  of  what  we,  or  rather  I,  suspect,  that  my 
father  is  white  and  that  he  would  not  be  over 
joyed  to  discover  me.  But  Tonkey-Lo  said,  quite 
of  his  own  volition,  that  he  had  seen  that  I  was 
not  full-blooded  Chinese. 

"Coming  home  across  the  meadows  I  got  almost 
an  attack  of  vertigo,  thinking  of  what  his  ques 
tions  might  mean.  Do  you  suppose  he  knows 
anything  of  me  or  my  mother  and  father,  Fun? 
There,  I  won't  let  myself  go  along  that  way. 
After  all,  what  could  there  be  but  some  sad  and 
possibly  or  probably  horrid  story  to  know?  My 
real  life  began  on  that  day,  five  years  ago,  when 
you  took  me  out  to  the  beach  in  San  Francisco, 
dressed  in  my  borrowed  finery  and  stolen-money 
shoes.  I  can  tell  you,  Fun,  many's  the  pair  of 
shoes  I've  given  away  since,  and  it  will  be  a  pet 
charity  all  my  life  to  me.  What  fun,  what  joy 
it  is  to  give,  Fun;  no  one  who  only  receives  ever 
can  know  that  pleasure;  it's  as  distinct  as  can 
be.  What  heaps  and  heaps  of  fun  one  could  get 
out  of  being  rich,  just  giving  it  away.  And, 
speaking  of  giving  away,  reminds  me  that  through 
the  boys  I  have  met  the  very  nicest,  jolliest  woman, 
a  Miss  Tobin,  who,  it  seems,  is  at  the  head  of, 
or  is  one  of  the  heads  of,  a  Settlement  in  New 
York. 

"She  is  an  old  friend  of  the  boys  and  occasion- 


SUE   CHUC  89 

ally  runs  out  to  the  farm  to  see  them,  and  she 
has  asked  me  to  come  and  see  her  and  meet  some 
of  her  chums.  She  is  the  most  unmissionary- 
looking  woman,  and  although  she  is,  I  presume, 
what  is  called  plain  and  does  not  care  anything 
about  dress,  yet  is  a  woman  of  distinction.  Re 
minds  me  somewhat  of  Miss  Elliot  with  the  first 
ten  coats  of  veneer  rubbed  off;  has  a  simplicity 
of  manner,  a  frankness  that  is  delightful  to  me, 
and  how  she  does  enjoy  her  work!  It's  a  treat 
to  hear  her  talk  of  it. 

uSo,  you  see,  your  small  sister  is  going  to  find 
all  of  her  spare  hours  well  taken  up.  They  can't 
in  the  very  nature  of  things  be  many,  you  know, 
for  the  work  I've  laid  out  for  myself  will  about 
fill  twenty-five  out  of  the  twenty-four  hours  of 
each  day. 

"No,  the  heat  did  not  affect  me,  even  consid 
ering  that  smells  were  added  unto  it.  I'll  be  able 
to  stand  the  climate  out  there,  I  know. 

"Am  so  glad  you  have  so  pleasant  a  sitting 
room,  and  I  am  delighted  to  see  from  the  snap 
shots  you  sent  me  of  it  that  my  photograph  holds 
so  conspicuous  a  place  on  your  work  table.  But 
who  is  the  handsome  woman  whose  panel  picture 
hangs  on  the  west  wall  over  that  set  of  Fielding? 
What  hair  and  lovely  eyes  she  has !  Is  the  hair 
powdered?  Her  face  looks  too  youthful  to  belong 


90  SUE     CHUC 

to  gray  or  white  hair.  At  first  I  thought  it  was 
the  portrait  of  some  London  celebrity,  a  Lady  this 
or  Countess  that,  you  had  seen  and  admired, 
bought,  and  brought  home;  then  I  laughed  at 
the  thought,  knowing  you,  so  it  must  be  a  friend 
or  you  would  not  have  it  where  your  eyes  can 
rest  upon  it  each  time  you  look  up  from  your 
writing.  Don't  forget  to  answer,  please. 

"Who  took  those  pictures,  by  the  way?  They 
are  good.  I  can  read  the  titles  of  your  books, 
and  each  object  stands  out  as  clearly  as  though 
individually  focused.- 

"No,  I  am  not  going  to  get  new  winter  clothes. 
My  last  winter's  ones  are  in  good  condition; 
thanks,  dear,  just  the  same.  How  you  do  think 
of  every  comfort  for  me.  Fun,  do  you  think  I 
will  ever  be  pretty?  I  seem  so,  so  homely  to 
myself;  do  people  ever  grow  pretty  after  twenty? 
This  time  you  may  laugh  if  you  want  to.  I  am 
silly.  Your 

"SUE/1 

Madame  Jay  herself  laughed  heartily  as  she 
finished,  and,  sitting  down  at  her  desk,  wrote  a 
short  letter  to  Dr.  Fun,  asking  if  she  might  send 
on  the  letter  to  a  friend,  just  as  a  sort  of  assent 
to  that  friend's  remarks  in  a  letter  to  her,  writ 
ten  some  time  ago.  It  might  be  a  little  matter  of 
two  months  before  it  could  be  returned,  but  it 


SUE    CHUG  91 

would  not  be  lost.  She  preferred  not  to  send  a 
copy  as  the  friend  had,  among  a  dozen  or  more 
fads,  the  one  of  "finding  significance  in  handwrit 
ing." 

Dr.  Fun's  reply  was  prompt  and  cordial  in  its 
assent;  Madame  Jay  had  not  told  him  to  whom 
the  letter  was  to  go,  but  he  was  glad  to  have 
any  friend  of  hers  whom  she  might  think  inter 
ested 'see  the  "little  sister's"  letters. 

On  receipt  of  the  Doctor's  permission,  Madame 
Jay  wrote: 

"Peking,  November  nth. 
"Mv  DEAR  THEODOCIA: 

"In  your  letter  to  me  many  months  ago,  you 
said,  among  other  things,  that  you  believed  that 
the  word  'chance,'  or  the  expression  'by  luck,1 
should  by  rights  be  struck  from  our  vocabulary, 
or  else  given  a  more  restricted  significance.  That 
you  had  come  to  the  conclusion  that  there  was 
a  reason  for  everything;  the  seeming  luck  or 
chance  was  but  an  effect  of  a  cause  or  causes  set 
up  long  ago,  and  you  added,  if  I  am  not  letting 
my  memory  play  me  false,  that  you  personally 
believed  every  life  your  life  touched  either  owed 
you  or  was  owed  by  you  a  debt  of  some  kind  or 
other,  and  later  on  you  said  that  you  always  now 
felt  a  sense  of  responsibility  until  you  had  solved 
the  'how'  to  pay  or  what  to  accept  in  payment, 


92  SUE    CHUC 

whether  it  meant  companionship,  mental,  spiritual, 
or  physical. 

uNow,  my  dear  Docia,  when  you  return  this 
inclosed  letter,  which  kindly  do  at  your  earliest 
convenience,  you  can  tell  me  what  you  think  of 
the  size  of  this  globe  of  ours,  and  if  it  is  ever 
possible  to  escape  paying  or  being  paid.  The  let 
ter  is  self-explanatory. 

"Many  thanks  for  your  kind  inquiries  for  my 
brother's  and  my  health,  which,  in  both  cases,  is 
perfect.  Am  duly  thankful  for  the  fact,  as  we 
— he  and  I — have  some  big  work  on  hand  that 
will  need  clear  brain  and  freedom  from  physical 
ills  to  carry  to  a  satisfactory  conclusion. 

"There  has  sprung  up  in  my  heart  a  little 
plant  of  hope:  am  trying  to  be  cautious  and  pa 
tient,  to  watch  and  to  wait  like  a  good  gardener 
to  see  if  it  will  develop,  bud  and  flower.  They 
talk  of  the  impatience  of  youth.  I  think  that  is 
nothing  to  the  impatience  of  age.  The  one  car 
ries  with  it  a  sense  of  ultimate  fulfillment;  the 
other  the  fear  that  the  longed-for  thing  may  not 
be  granted  before  the  curtain  drops,  and  between 
those  two  kinds  of  impatience  lies  all  of  the  never- 
to-be-bridged  distance  between  youth  and  age. 

"Pardon!  I  did  not  mean  to  write  you  a  hom 
ily;  and,  as  you  know,  it  is  only  at  times  that  I 
do  feel  old.  Just  now  this  new  hope  that  has 


SUE    CHUC  93 

come  to  me  has  made  me,  strange  to  say,  feel 
the  fact. 

"This  is  not  by  way  of  being  a  letter;  only 
an  opportunity  to  send  a  word  with  the  inclosure, 
and,  although  I  do  not  stand  on  ceremony,  'tis 
you  who  owe  me  a  longish  letter  in  answer  to 
mine,  which  covered  more  sheets  than  I  usually 
devote  to  any  four  letters. 

"Yours  in  affection, 
"JAY-SAN." 


CHAPTER   XI 


HE  Doctor  had  gone  down  into  the 
city  one  night,  in  answer  to  an 
emergency  call,  and,  being  con 
ducted  to  the  house  of  a  man  whom 
he  did  not  know,  found  the  place 
in  an  uproar.  The  sudden  and 
violent  illness  of  the  master  of  the  house  had  upset 
the  wits  of  the  other  members  of  the  family. 

All  of  the  women  of  the  family  were  wailing 
as  he  entered  the  courtyard,  and  the  air  of  the 
room  into  which  he  was  shown  was  so  dense  with 
the  smoke  of  burning  incense,  of  the  pungent  odor 
of  some  distilled  herb  preparations  and  the  thick 
reek  of  weeks  of  closed  windows — for  the  cold 
weather  caused  every  native  to  exclude  any  pos 
sible  breath  of  fresh  air — that  for  a  second  even 
his  well-seasoned  olfactory  organs  rebelled. 

With  an  exclamation  of  impatience  he  propped 
back  the  heavy  door,  and,  ordering  the  windows 
to  be  opened  and  the  lamp  held  so  that  he  could 
see  clearly,  he  went  to  the  patient. 

Stretched  upon  wadded  quilts  which  rested  upon 


SUE    CHUC  95 

a  native  frame  of  lacquered  wood,  he  saw  the 
man,  his  face  of  a  grayish  pallor,  great  beads  of 
sweat  standing  upon  his  forehead,  his  eyes  sunken 
and  glazed,  and  the  body  shaken  by  long  convul 
sive  tremors. 

He  felt  the  pulse  and  leaned  his  head  down  to 
listen  to  the  heart's  beat;  then,  giving  orders 
for  his  assistant  at  the  hospital  to  be  sent  for  and 
a  nurse  to  be  called,  superintended  the  carrying 
out  of  his  immediate  needs  with  a  firm  voice 
that  carried  with  it  a  command ;  stopped  the  wail 
ing,  gave  a  word  of  encouragement  to  the  old 
wife  and  much  older  mother  of  the  man,  sent  the 
daughter  to  help  the  servants  carry  out  his  orders, 
and  had  a  semblance  of  order  restored  when  his 
assistant  arrived. 

After  the  young  physician  had  looked  at  the 
patient  and  seen  what  was  the  treatment  adopted, 
he  glanced  inquiringly  at  the  older  man,  who  nod 
ded  in  answer  to  the  other's  unspoken  question. 

They  worked  hard,  they  worked  steadily 
through  the  remainder  of  the  night,  and,  as  the 
dawn  broke,  the  patient,  limp  and  weak  as  a  new 
baby,  but  purged  of  the  poison,  lay  supinely.  It 
had  been  a  hard  fight  and  they  two  had  fought 
against  odds,  but  they  had  won. 

Dr.  Fun,  before  ordering  the  room  to  be 
thoroughly  cleared  of  the  paraphernalia  used, 


96  SUE     CHUC 

bottled  and  sealed  some  of  the  contents  of  one 
of  the  basins,  gave  it  to  his  assistant  to  take 
back  to  the  laboratory,  and  dismissed  him  for  the 
necessary  rest  and  bath  before  the  office  hours  at 
the  hospital,  he  remaining  at  the  bedside  to  see 
that  there  was  no  failure  in  carrying  out  his  or 
ders  until  the  nurse  should  arrive. 

He  was  tired  through  and  through,  and  sat  in 
a  chair  at  the  bedside  with  eyes  closed  until,  hear 
ing  a  long  sigh,  he  started  up  and  leaned  over 
the  sick  man. 

"Will  I  die?" 

"Not  this  time,  my  friend;  but  for  some  time 
you  will  be  weak.  A  man  of  your  age  cannot  go 
through  an  experience  such  as  this  with  the  same 
chance  for  quick  recovery  that  a  young  person 
has." 

"You  know  what  it  was?" 

"Yes.  Do  not  talk  now;  later,  when  you  have 
rested."  The  sick  man  made  a  slight  and  feeble 
effort  to  remonstrate,  and  then  weakly  gave  it 
up  as  too  great.  An  hour  passed.  Then  the 
nurse  and  her  helper  came  and  Dr.  Fun  rose 
to  leave.  A  feeble  hand  held  his  coat  and  he  bent 
down  to  hear  what  the  man  said. 

"He  has  tried  to  kill  me  twice — the  third  time 
he  will  succeed.  The  first  time  in  San  Francisco. 


SUE    CHUC  97 

I  thought  I  had  escaped  him  here,  but  he  has 
found  me  even  after  thirty-five  years." 

Fun  looked  down  at  him  compassionately. 
"Think  no  more  of  it.  We  will,  when  you  are 
able,  talk  of  it,  and  maybe  we  can  find  a  way  out. 
You  are  a  man  of  wealth;  use  some  of  it  to  at 
tain  freedom.  Was  it  Tong,  or  private?" 

"Private — no  it  was  not  money;  it  is  the  child 
he  wants,  the  boy  child" — his  feeble  voice  break 
ing.  "I  cannot  give  him  that,  for  as  I  stole  the 
child  so  was  the  child  stolen  from  me,  and  no  trace, 
no  trace."  Fun's  ear  had  caught  the  names  of 
the  Alley  and  San  Francisco,  and  his  memory 
had  gone  back  to  the  places  he  knew  so  well. 
Ah !  how  many  just  such  cases  he  knew  of !  How 
many  had  occurred  in  that  very  city  and  Quarter. 
It  was  so  old  a  method  of  vengeance  and  yet 
ever  carrying  its  heartbreak  and  potency  for  suf 
fering — the  loss  of  the  "first  born."  To  the  Oc 
cidental  the  words  carry  no  such  pregnancy  of 
meaning. 

Gently  loosening  the  clutching  fingers,  he  gave 
his  orders  and  went  back  to  bathe  and  change  into 
fresh  clothes.  There  was  no  time  for  even  a  short 
nap ;  at  nine  he  was  to  perform  an  operation.  He 
held  his  hand  up,  perfectly  steady;  he  looked  at 
his  face,  weary,  with  circles  too  deep  and  too 
dark,  but  with  an  underglow  of  blood  and  health. 


98  SUE    CHUC 

Yes,  he  would  drink  a  couple  of  cups  of  strong 
coffee  and  eat  a  good  breakfast  and  he  would  be 
fit,  and  he  mentally  turned  the  key  on  the  secret 
cabinet  in  his  mind  where  dwelt  the  little  whis 
pering  demon  whose  name  was  poppy-dreams. 

The  following  day  he  returned  to  the  house 
of  the  man  whom  he  had  found  so  near  to  death. 
In  the  interim  his  assistant  had  taken  the  case 
and  reported  the  patient  slowly  improving. 

As  he  entered  the  courtyard  he  glanced  about 
him.  He  had  been  aware  in  his  hurried  crossing 
of  it  the  night  he  was  first  called  there  that  it 
was  of  unusual  size,  and,  without  giving  it  defi 
nite  thought,  had  yet  realized  that  it  was  more 
than  usually  rich  in  decoration,  and  now  as  the 
full  light  of  day  flooded  it,  he  looked  about  with 
delight.  Always  quick  to  feel  beauty  in  all  its 
forms,  it  was  with  a  distinct  feeling  of  amazed 
delight  that  his  eyes  turned  from  point  to  point. 
Glazed  tiles,  pottery  and  porcelain  jars  and 
bowls,  with  their  burden  of  quaint  trees,  carved 
stone,  and  carved  and  lacquered  wood.  He  even 
turned  to  look  back  on  it  all  after  having  entered 
under  the  heavy  portals  of  the  doorway,  and  in 
so  doing  spied  dark  eyes  peering  at  him  from  be 
hind  the  fretwork  of  a  window  blind. 

The  servant  who  ushered  him  into  the  room 
where  lay  the  sick  man,  he  took  particular  notice 


SUE    CHUC  99 

of;  the  face  was  immobile  as  though  carven,  but 
the  eyes  were  troubled,  and  Dr.  Fun  made  a  men 
tal  note  of  the  man  when  he  entered  the  sick 
room. 

The  nurse  rose  from  the  seat  at  the  bedside 
where  she  had  been  writing  at  the  patient's  dicta 
tion,  and,  after  answering  the  Doctor's  questions, 
left  the  room. 

Dr.  Fun  took  the  man's  hand  in  his  and  felt 
of  the  flesh,  slid  his  fingers  to  the  wrist  and 
touched  the  pulse;  then,  sitting  down  on  the  chair 
the  nurse  had  occupied,  held  the  wrist  firmly  while 
he  noted  the  beats  and  looked  at  the  man's  face, 
observing  the  eyes,  the  pallor,  the  look  of  suffer 
ing. 

"I  see,  my  friend,  that  you  are  not  letting  your 
self  make  the  recovery  you  might;  how  is  it? 
Are  you  troubled?  Can  I  help  you  in  ways  other 
than  ministering  to  the  body?" 

The  old  man  looked  long  and  intently  at  him 
and  the  pallor  of  his  face  deepened,  and  into 
his  eyes  leaped  fear.  Feebly  he  endeavored  to 
withdraw  his  hand,  and,  seeing  the  look,  Dr.  Fun 
gently  withdrew  his  own. 

"Who  are  you?" 

"I  am  Dr.  Fun,  at  present  in  charge  of  the 
hospital,  and  it  was  I  who  attended  you  during 
your  illness  of  night  before  last.  You  were  so 


ioo  SUE     CHUC 

ill  at  the  time  that  you  did  not  see  me  well.  Why 
should  you  feel  fear  of  me?  I  am  a  stranger  to 
you,  a  stranger  almost  to  the  land." 

Still  the  eyes  stared  with  the  look  of  shocked 
fear,  and  he  was  beginning  to  think  some  new 
phase  of  the  illness  at  hand  when  the  patient, 
with  an  extreme  effort,  raised  himself  from  the 
pillows  and  peered  so  closely  into  the  Doctor's 
face  that  his  fevered  breath  struck  him. 

"Where  do  you  come  from?  You  are  not  he; 
he  is  now  an  old  man;  are  you  the  part  of  him 
my  treachery  killed — the  young  self  with  its  full 
ness  of  life  and  hope  and  belief?  Is  it  to  haunt 
me  you  come;  to  make  me  repent?*  He  grasped 
the  Doctor's  hands  and  peered  under  dropped 
lids.  "Tell  me,  tell  me,  I  can  better  know  the 
truth  than  be  haunted  by  the  thought  of  the  chance 
that  I  may  not  know — that  I  may  not  know " 

The  Doctor  saw  that  there  was  some  deeper 
ground  for  the  old  man's  trouble  than  any  mere 
disturbance  to  the  physical,  and  he  understood 
from  the  allusions  made  that  he  was  so  like  some 
other  man  that  the  old  belief  of  the  race,  that 
the  injured  man  might  at  will  project  a  material 
ized  self  to  haunt  the  author  of  his  pain,  had 
taken  hold  of  him,  and  realizing  how  serious 
might  be  the  consequences  to  his  patient  if,  in  his 


SUE     CHUC  10 1 

weakened  state,  he  became  unduly  excited,  he 
strove  to  quiet  him. 

"Lie  back  on  your  pillows,"  gently  replacing 
him,  "and  I  will  sit  here  and  tell  you  of  myself, 
all  that  I  know.  From  what  you  have  said  to-day 
and  what  you  said  the  night  I  first  came,  I  know 
that  you  carry  a  burden  of  unhappiness.  My  re 
semblance  to  some  one  who  has  to  do  with  that 
unhappiness  makes  you  fear.  You  must  not  for 
a  chance  likeness,  trick  of  manner  of  voice,  think 
me  what  you  fear."  As  he  spoke,  he  smoothed 
the  clothes  deftly  as  could  a  woman,  and  again 
clasping  the  sick  man's  wrist  kept  note  of  the 
pulse  beats  as  he  told  his  own  story. 

Gradually  as  he  talked  the  hunted,  haunted 
look  died  out  of  the  eyes  so  steadily  fixed  on  his 
own,  and  in  its  place  came  first  a  surprise  that 
deepened  into  wonder  and  became  at  last  satis 
faction,  a  satisfaction  so  great  that  it  left  him 
powerless  to  speak,  so  that  when  the  Doctor  had 
finished  his  story  there  was  a  silence. 

As  he  had  talked,  the  Doctor  had  watched  those 
changing  eyes,  noticed  the  surprise,  the  wonder, 
and  the  satisfaction,  and  realized  that  he  had 
brought  comfort  to  the  old  man,  even  though  in 
some  way  unknown  to  his  intent. 

The  sick  man's  eyelids  dropped,  and  from  un 
der  them  rolled  tears.  The  long  years  of  control 


102  SUE    CHUC 

had  taught  the  muscles  their  lesson,  and  even  now, 
in  the  moment  of  greatest  emotion,  they  were  true 
to  the  teaching,  but  the  tears,  those  slow  tears 
of  age,  came  unchecked.  After  a  time  they  ceased 
and  when  the  nurse  came  into  the  room  the  face 
was  dry  and  no  sign  of  them  remained;  but  the 
eyes  were  different  that  looked  up  at  her,  there 
was  a  renewal  of  life,  a  brightness,  and  she  smiled 
up  at  Dr.  Fun,  who  had  risen  and  stood  to  take 
leave  of  the  sick  man. 

"It  is  as  Kue-Bow  affirmed:  your  presence 
brings  healing,"  she  said. 

"I  will  keep  you  quiet  no  longer  than  I  have 
to,  Choo-Dan.  It  will  rest  with  you,  though," 
and  he  smiled  down  at  the  man. 

"You  will  come  to-morrow?" 

The  Doctor  shook  his  head.  "No,  you  do  not 
need  me,  really.  My  assistant  and  your  nurse  are 
quite  competent  to  bring  you  through,  and  I  am 
very  busy." 

"You  will  not  go  away?" 

"Away — you  mean  from  the  city?  Not  that 
I  know  of." 

"You  will  not — you  will  not  go  anywhere  with 
out  seeing  me?"  the  other  persisted. 

The  Doctor  was  touched  and  amused,  and  gave 
the  promise  as  one  would  to  a  querulous  child, 
and  left. 


SUE    CHUG  103 

At  the  outer  door  he  found  the  servant,  palpa 
bly  waiting  for  him,  and,  thinking  him  anxious 
as  to  his  master's  condition,  he  stopped  and  told 
him  that  it  would  be  but  a  short  time  before  Mr. 
Choo-Dan  would  be  up  and  about. 

"You  have  been  long  with  your  master?"  he 
inauired,  as  the  servant  helped  him  with  his  coat 
and  handed  him  his  fur  cap. 

"Forty  years,  sir." 

"That  speaks  well  for  you  both,"  the  Doctor 
said,  in  his  bright,  kind  way,  with  a  smile  and  a 
look  at  the  servant.  The  other's  breath  came 
quickly,  his  lids  fluttered,  and  his  nostrils  quiv 
ered  as  he  bowed. 

"Umph!  The  servant  evidently  knows  about 
the  master's  trouble  and  was  with  him  at  the  time. 
If  it  did  not  seem  to  have  comforted  Choo-Dan, 
that  sketch  of  my  own  experiences,  I  should  ex 
pect,  to  have  this  wonderful  resemblance  I  bear 
to  some  one  get  me  into  trouble  some  dark  night, 
perhaps." 

He  hesitated  the  better  part  of  a  minute.  The 
thought  had  crossed  his  mind  that  the  date  of 
the  event  of  old  Choo-Dan's  child-stealing  coin 
cided  with  what  he  knew  of  his  own,  and  San 
Francisco  was  the  city  in  which  both  had  occurred. 
Then,  with  a  shake  of  his  head  and  a  smile  at 
his  folly,  he  went  his  way.  No,  it  was  absurd, 


104  SUE    CHUC 

and  besides  the  thing  was  of  such  frequent  oc 
currence.  His  own  anxiety  to  know  more  of  his 
birth  and  parentage  and  the  rather  unusual  cir 
cumstances  developed  by  the  old  man's  partial  be 
trayal  of  his  own  trouble,  had  made  his  active 
brain  strike  fire  on  the  subject. 

On  his  return  to  his  room  that  night  he  found  a 
letter  from  Sue. 


CHAPTER   XII 


"New  York,  October  iyth. 
iUN  DEAR  : 

"Am  so  interested  and  excited! 
Have  discovered  that  the  'wonder 
ful  woman'  whom  the  boys  con 
sider  their  fairy  godmother  and 
call  'our  Mrs.  Theodocia,'  is  iden 
tical  with  the  woman  whose  photograph  is  on 
your  wall  that  I  noticed  in  the  snapshots  you  sent 
me  and  that  I  have  written  you  of,  begging  to  be 
told  who  she  is,  and  it  all  came  about  quite  in  the 
most  approved  style. 

"We  had  gone  down  to  'Cosy  Corner' — that's 
what  we  have  called  the  week-end  place,  wanting 
a  name  of  our  own — over  Sunday,  and  I  was  hav 
ing  one  of  my  pow-wows  with  old  Tonkey-Lo  and 
the  boys,  and  it  suddenly  occurred  to  me  that  they 
would  like  to  see  the  snapshots  of  your  den,  for 
by  this  they  know  all  about  my  'big  brother,'  and 
are  very  interested,  and  I  told  Bub  to  run  along 
over  to  the  house  and  get  them. 

"About  fifteen  minutes  after,  we  saw  him  come 


106  SUE    CHUC 

flying  back  and  long  before  he  had  arrived  he 
was  tossing  up  his  arms  and  yelling  so  that  we 
thought  something  had  gone  wrong,  and  all  rushed 
out  to  meet  him. 

'  'It's  our  lady;  it's  our  lady!'  was  what  he 
was  yelling,  and  he  dashed  up  to  us  and  held  out 
the  picture  showing  the  panel  portrait.  I  was 
so  excited  that  I  quite  forgot  to  read  him  a  lec 
ture  on  'the  opening  of  parcels  not  belonging  to 
oneself.'  You  should  have  seen  those  boys  and 
old  Tonkey-Lo!  One  would  have  thought  it  one 
of  the  seven  wonders  that  some  one  in  China 
had  a  photograph  of  'their  lady,'  and  they  were 
deeply  disappointed  when  I  could  not  tell  them 
anything  of  how  you  came  by  it  or  how  well  you 
knew  her.  I'm  awfully  curious,  myself,  Fun  dear. 
They  made  me  stay  to  lunch  and  they  talked  all 
the  time  about  her.  You  will  tell  me  how  you 
knew  her,  won't  you?  I'm  glad  she's  quite  old. 
She  must  be  at  least  forty — yes? 

"I  wish  you  could  have  seen  our  luncheon.  The 
boys  set  the  table  with  what  they  call  'our  com 
pany  service'  in  honor  of  my  being  there,  and  it 
looked  so  pretty.  The  china  is  all  that  familiar 
old  pattern  Mai-den  had  with  the  little  coral-col 
ored  figures  of  girls  and  boys  and  funny  bridges 
and  impossible  barnyard  fowls  on  a  grayish  cream 
ground.  It  was  sent  them  by  some  friend  of  'their 


SUE     CHUC  107 

Lady  Theodocia,'  some  dear  old  man  out  in  Pe 
king,  who  is  so  learned  he  knows  everything  about 
everything,  the  boys  say,  and  who  was  born  in 
Europe  and  had  an  English  father;  then  when 
he  was  a  man,  went  back  to  China  to  work  for 
his  mother's  people.  Or  else  it  was  a  Russian  that 
his  father  was,  I  can't  quite  remember,  because 
they  told  me  so  many  weird  tales.  Anyway,  Mrs. 
Theodocia  is  a  great  friend  of  his  and  she  had 
written  to  him  one  time  telling  him  all  about  find 
ing  her  niece  and  these  boys  and  saying  that  they, 
the  boys,  were  going  to  keep  house,  and  what 
should  come  along  in  the  next  few  months  but  a 
notification  from  a  big  Chinaman  in  Mott  Street 
that  there  was  a  case  directed  to  them,  duty  paid, 
and  sure  enough  it  was  for  them  and  directed  to 
all  of  them.  Wasn't  it  just  dear  of  that  man! 
The  boys  were  so  delighted  they  never  rested 
until  they  had  learned  all  about  that  pottery. 
They  took  a  plate  up  to,  or  down  to,  rather,  the 
big  German  who  teaches  the  night  classes,  and 
he  gave  them  books  to  read  about  pottery-making, 
and  now  they  can  tell  all  about  marks  and  glazes 
and  firings  and  crackle.  Aren't  they  just  the 
j oiliest  boys? 

"Where  was  I? — Oh,  yes;  telling  you  of  the 
luncheon.  Well,  the  table  had  the  lovely  dishes 
on  it,  and  their  best  table-cloth  that  some  girl 


io8  SUE     CHUC 

they  used  to  know  in  their  slummy  days  hem 
stitched  for  them;  and  hemstitched  napkins.  In 
the  center  was  one  of  the  big  bowls,  with  autumn 
leaves.  The  knives  and  forks  were  the  prettiest 
things!  I  could  not  help  looking  at  them  closely 
and  finally  I  asked  if  they  were  Swiss  carving, 
whereat  Casey  got  very  red  and  admitted  that 
the  handles  were  his  work;  he  had  spent  every 
spare  minute  for  several  winters  working  on 
them,  and  the  set  was  just  finished.  That  boy  is 
an  artist! 

"We  had  fried  chicken  with  such  gravy;  it 
does  take  a  Chinese  cook  to  make  that,  Fun;  and 
salad  of  beets,  carrots,  potatoes,  and  lovely  let 
tuce  from  one  of  the  glass  frames,  all  about  the 
dish,  and  the  dressing  perfectly  mixed;  hot  bis 
cuits,  and  honey  and  apple-turnovers. 

"The  boys  have  very  good  manners,  and  Casey 
keeps  a  sharp  eye  on  them  to  see  that  they  live 
up  to  that  gorgeous  china,  I  can  tell  you!  Little 
Bub  is  a  little  aristocrat  in  his  manners.  As 
Casey  said,  in  telling  me  of  him,  'We  never  had 
to  tell  him  to  be  careful;  it  just  comes  natural. 
But  for  the  rest  of  us!  Umph!  Well,  we  ain  t 
— are  not  done  yet  with  having  to  be  careful.1 

"When  the  boys  become  interested  they  forget 
the  acquired  knowledge  of  the  parts  of  speech 
and  what  is  called  Refinement  of  language'  at 


SUE     CHUC  109 

Miss  Elliot's,  and  drop  into  all  kinds  of  slang. 
I  like  it  immensely;  they  are  so  unconscious  of 
how  funny  the  abrupt  transitions  are  to  one  listen 
ing,  and,  Fun,  they  are  really  such  dear  boys ;  not 
a  bit  coarse;  just  full  of  life  and  spirits — and  so 
good-hearted.  I  wish  /  could  come  across  some 
boys  like  that  in  just  the  stage  of  development 
they  were  in  when  their  Lady  found  them,  and 
play  fairy  godmother.  It  must  be  such  good  fun 
and  she  must  be  such  a  sensible  woman,  too. 
What  do  you  suppose  were  the  set  of  rules  she 
gave  them  to  go  by? — they  each  have  a  copy 
pasted  in  a  favorite  book: 

"  'No.  i.     Keep  clean. 

"  'No.  2.  Remember  you  are  your  brother's 
keeper. 

"  'No.  3.  Don't  let  a  day  go  by  without  hav 
ing  added  to  your  stock  of  knowledge,  or  helped 
some  one. 

"  'No.  4.     Be  clean!' 

"Not  a  bit  of  preaching,  only  those  few  lines. 
Good,  is  it  not?  Casey  said  that  they  found  the 
first  and  the  last  the  hardest  to  keep,  but  they 
agreed  to  lay  out  a  schedule  and  never  let  any 
thing  break  into  it;  then  they  would  some  time 
get  the  'clean  habit'  so  fixed  they  would  not  have 
to  be  looking  out  all  the  time. 

"He  said,  'You  see,  Miss  Sue,  we  was — were 


no  SUE     CHUC 

born  in  the  dirt  and  everybody  we  knew  until 
Faith-Hope  adopted  her  Lady  was  dirty  and  we 
never  even  thought  about  it.'  I  asked,  'Was 
Faith-Hope?' 

*  'Oh,  no;  she  used  to  be  just  as  clean  as  she 
could  be.'  Then  they  told  me  of  the  old  times. 
Truly,  Fun,  I  should  like  to  have  some  boys. 
Are  the  Chinese  boys  as  interesting,  do  you  think? 
Maybe  when  I  come  out  to  you  I  can  rescue  some 
Chinese  slummies — wouldn't  it  be  fun! 

"After  the  luncheon  was  finished  we  went  for 
a  walk.  The  woods  are  heavenly  now,  and  we 
brought  back  great  branches  of  autumn  leaves  and 
berries,  and  the  boys  helped  us  arrange  them. 
Then  we  asked  them  to  have  a  picnic  supper  with 
us,  and  afterward  we  sat  about  and  told  stories 
before  the  fire  until  old  Tonkey-Lo  came  looking 
for  his  adored  Bub. 

"I  can  see  where  this  week-end  shack  is  going 
to  mean  much  to  us. 

"We  are  working  very  hard,  but  do  not  get 
worried  over  that  fact,  for  we  are  very  careful  in 
regard  to  our  food,  our  hours,  and  our  life  gen 
erally,  and  both  my  chum  and  I  are  strong  as  can 
be.  No,  I'm  not  overdoing,  truly.  Please  don't 
send  me  any  more  money  for  clothes.  I  have 
everything  I  want.  Yes,  you  can  send  me  that 
gold  locket  you  spoke  of.  I  love  jewelry,  but  I 


SUE     CHUC  1 1 1 

want  a  picture  of  my  big  brother  in  the  locket, 
else  back  it  goes.  Your 

"SUE." 

UP.  S. — I'm  afraid  my  letters  read  'scrappy/ 
as  our  boys  would  say.  But  I  want  you  to  know 
all  the  little  details  of  our  life,  and  I  write  as 
they  come  to  my  mind.  Anyway,  Fun  dear,  you 
don't  want  letters  that  read  like  extracts  from  a 
'polite  letter  writer,'  do  you? 

"P.  S.  No.  2. — Old  Tonkey-Lo  wants  to  know 
the  names  of  the  people  you  call  Madame  Jay 
and  her  brother.  He  is  of  a  curiosity!  S." 

When  Fun  had  read  and  reread,  laughed  and 
sighed  over  the  letter,  he  inclosed  it  in  an  en 
velope  and  directed  it  to  Madame  Jay;  then  sat 
for  some  time  staring  across  at  the  face  of  the 
handsome  woman  in  the  panel  on  the  wfcll  oppo 
site.  "How  she  radiates  helpfulness,"  he  thought. 
"How  rich  she  makes  the  lives  she  contacts." 


CHAPTER   XIII 

i  AM  afraid,  Dr.  Fun,  you  will  have 
to  go  to  see  Choo-Dan;  he  is  not 
improving  as  he  should,  and  asks 
daily  of  you." 

Dr.  Fun's  young  assistant  stood 
before  the  desk  in  the  Doctor's 
office  one  day  a  fortnight  later,  a  puzzled  frown 
drawing  two  vertical  lines  between  his  eyebrows 
and  his  big  spectacles  resting  with  difficulty  upon 
the  very  indeterminate  bridge  of  his  flat  nose, 
giving  him  the  appearance  of  a  benevolently  in 
clined  but  puzzled  young  owl. 

"Yes,  Doctor;  what  seems  to  be  wrong?" 
"Nothing  specific;  yet  he  does  not  get  strong." 
"Very  well,"  seeing  the  worried  look.    "I  will 
make  time  to-day." 

The  lines  disappeared  as  though  by  magic,  and 
the  queer  smooth  face  regained  its  wonted  se 
renity. 

That  afternoon  the  Doctor  again  entered  the 
big  court  and  was  conducted  to  the  patient's  room. 
The  old  man  had  been  dozing  and  wakened  with 


SUE     CHUC  113 

a  start  as  the  Doctor  stood  by  his  bedside.  He 
blinked  several  times,  as  though  not  quite  certain 
whether  or  not  a  dream  were  fulfilling  itself, 
and,  as  the  recognition  of  the  reality  came  to  him, 
he  grasped  a  fold  of  the  Doctor's  coat  and  held 
it  tightly. 

uAh!  'tis  you,"  with  a  long  sigh;  "then  it  is 
all  true.  I  did  not  dream  it." 

"What  is  wrong,  Choo-Dan?  They  tell  me 
that  you  are  troubling  over  something,  that  you 
are  not  gaining  strength  as  you  should." 

The  old  man  shook  his  head  impatiently.  "No, 
I  am  not  gaining  strength  and  I  will  not,  I  think, 
until  I  have  cleaned  my  heart  as  you  have  cleaned 
my  body." 

The  Doctor  sat  down  on  the  chair  placed  by  the 
bedside  and  said:  "If  it  will  help  you  to  tell  me 
your  trouble,  tell  it.  We  physicians  have  to  be 
confessors  often." 

After  a  moment's  pause,  Choo-Dan  began: 

"Many  years  ago,  before  you  were  born,  I  had 
a  friend  who  was  dearer  to  me  than  myself,  or 
I  thought  so  until  we  loved  the  same  girl.  We 
had  been  reared  together  in  a  land  far  from  this; 
were  schoolmates,  and  later,  when  our  studies  at 
Bonn  were  over — yes" — seeing  the  Doctor's  sur 
prised  look — "it  was  there  we  lived — we  trav 
eled  together.  And  it  w'as  while  we  were  trav- 


H4  SUE     CHUC 

eling,  stopping  for  a  while  where  we  found  in 
terest,  that  we  met  the  girl  and  both  loved  her. 
You  know  how  much  more  freely  the  foreigners 
allow  their  daughters  to  live.  She  was  the  daugh 
ter  of  a  German  professor  in  Jena,  and  we  were 
taking  a  graduate  course  in  the  University  and 
living  in  his  house,  so  that  we  saw  her  each  day. 

"My  friend  had  foreign  blood,  and  with  it  a 
something  that  brought  him  nearer  in  understand 
ing  and  sympathy  than  my  full  Chinese  blood  al 
lowed  me,  and  soon  I  saw  that  I  had  no  chance 
to  win  a  heart  that  was  even  then  beating  for 
him."  The  old  man's  eyes  wore  a  far-away  look 
as  though  he  were  gazing  across  the  years.  uMy 
heart  was  bitter  and  black,  my  love  for  my  friend 
turned  to  gall,  and,  lest  I  do  him  harm  I  left, 
but  not  until  I  had  told  him  of  my  love  for  her 
and  hate  toward  him. 

"There  was  a  third  student  in  the  house,  a  man 
we  had  disliked  and  avoided,  a  man  with  the 
blood  of  several  races  flowing  in  his  veins,  and 
bearing  with  it  the  worst  traits  of  each.  He  was 
supposed  to  be  a  Central  American,  but  my  friend 
and  I  knew  him  to  be  part  Chinese.  We  had  been 
so  taken  up  with  our  love  of  the  girl  that  we 
had  not  known  or  noticed  that  this  other  man's 
heart  was  caught  in  the  gold  of  her  hair,  in  the 
heaven's  blue  of  her  eyes,  and  the  rose  and  cream 


SUE     CHUC  115 

of  her  cheeks,  and  it  was  only  after  I  had  told 
my  friend  of  my  feeling  and  left  the  house  that 
he  stole  after  me,  his  livid  toad's  face  green  with 
the  jealousy  of  his  wicked  heart.  He  had  lis 
tened  at  our  door,  heard,  and  come  to  me,  the 
loser,  with  offer  of  help  in  my  vengeance — ven 
geance,  I  had  thought  of  no  vengeance,  and  I 
told  him  so  and  threw  him  off." 

There  was  a  silence  and  the  Doctor  held  a 
glass  of  water  to  the  trembling  lips  and  looked 
compassionately  down  at  the  yellow  face.  After 
a  minute,  Choo-Dan  took  up  his  tale: 

"I  wandered  far  and  even  came  back  home  to 
see  the  mother  I  had  not  seen  from  babyhood,  but 
I  found  no  peace.  I  had  grown  away  from  the 
customs  of  my  people;  they  seemed  as  savages  to 
me;  I  could  see  no  good  in  anything,  and  I  left. 
This  time  I  went  to  America,  and  one  day  in 
Washington  I  met  the  Central  American.  We 
stopped  as  of  a  mutual  impulse  and  talked.  He 
told  me  that  he  had  kept  track  of  my  friend,  that 
he  and  the  girl  had  married,  and  that  she  was  to 
be  a  mother  soon;  that  they  were  even  now  in 
Washington,  and  he  said — his  evil  black  eyes 
glinting  under  their  heavy  lashless  lids — 'You  re 
fused  my  help  when  I  offered  it  you  before.  You 
had  no  desire  for  vengeance  then.  Have  you 
now?" 


n6  SUE     CHUC 

"And  again  I  pushed  him  aside  as  I  would  a 
toad,  only  refraining  from  killing  him  as  we  re 
frain  from  trampling  upon  a  toad,  because  of 
its  loathsomeness. 

"Once  again  I  wandered  down  into  the  South; 
far  down,  and  I  crossed  from  the  Atlantic  to  the 
Pacific,  taking  months  to  the  trip,  and  landed 
in  San  Francisco. 

"At  the  last  of  the  trip  there  had  come  to  me 
a  feeling  of  weariness,  a  desire  to  go  back  to  the 
country  and  people  that  were  mine;  to  the  con 
ditions  that  so  short  a  time  before  I  had  found 
strange  and  distasteful.  And  I  was  walking 
through  the  narrow  streets  of  the  Chinese  Quar 
ter  in  San  Francisco,  the  second  day  after  my  ar- 
ival,  seeing  it  all  with  new  and  clearer  vision,  when 
again  I  met  the  Central  American.  This  time  I 
made  as  though  to  avoid  him,  but  he  would  not 
have  it  and  stopped  and  said,  'They  are  here.' 

"  'Here,'  I  said  stupidly,  for  it  seemed  to  me 
that  I  was  being  hunted. 

'Yes,  here,'  he  said  again,  and  leaning  to 
ward  me,  his  lips  drawn  back  in  a  snarl,  he  added : 
'Would  you  not  like  to  see  his,  your  friend's, 
first-born?  'Tis  a  boy,  a  fine  boy,  with  a  look  of 
the  father  already  in  his  face.  'Tis  said,  you 
know,  that  if  the  woman  loves,  the  child  will  re 
semble  the  man  of  her  heart.' 


SUE     CHUG  ii  7 

"I  know  I  trembled  and  I  know  that  there  was 
born  at  the  hearing  a  desire  to  hurt.  He,  the 
toad-man,  read  my  hurt  and  followed  me  back  to 
the  hotel,  talking,  laying  bare  his  plan,  for  the 
carrying  out  of  which  he  wanted  my  help.  His 
certainty  of  gaining  my  consent,  his  fearless  frank 
ness  hypnotized  me;  and  when  he  left  me  it  was 
fully  agreed  that  his  should  be  the  part  of  steal 
ing  the  child,  mine  of  preparing  a  safe  shelter 
until  we  could  with  safety  leave  the  country,  tak 
ing  the  child  with  us.  We  were  to  go  to  a  place 
that  he  knew  of  near  Mexico,  high  up  in  the  heart 
of  the  mountains,  and  there  bring  up  the  child. 

"I  was  vaguely  conscious  as  he  talked  that  in 
his  heart  he  meant  no  good  to  me  nor  to 
the  child,  perhaps;  to  me  of  a  certainty  none,  but 
his  queer  compelling  eyes  robbed  me  of  judgment, 
and  when  he  left  he  thought  me  completely  in 
his  power  and  under  the  spell  his  evil  eye  had 
cast." 

Again  the  voice  faltered,  again  the  Doctor's 
kind  eyes  expressed  the  pity  he  felt  and  his  strong, 
helpful  hands  smoothed  the  pillows  and  re 
arranged  the  bedding. 

The  voice,  grown  stronger,  took  up  the  thread 
of  the  story: 

"It  was  all  done  as  he  said:  he  stole  the  child, 
I  hid  them  both  in  the  house  I  had  rented  on 


Ii8  SUE     CHUC 

one  of  the  hill  tops,  then" — the  thin  lips  bit  the 
words — "then  I  woke  from  my  trance.  I  saw 
what  I  had  done,  and  horror  filled  my  heart  and 
I  determined  to  restore  the  child.  I  had  one 
friend  in  San  Francisco  and  to  him  I  went,  telling 
him  my  story  in  full,  sparing  myself  in  nothing. 
And  after  he  had  heard  it  he  stretched  out  his 
hands  in  compassion  toward  me,  saying:  'Oh,  my 
friend,  be  strong;  I  have  that  to  tell  you  which 
needs  a  man's  strength  to  hear:  the  child's  mother 
is  dead;  the  shock  of  her  child's  loss  killed  her; 
her  heart  was  weak  and  it  broke.' 

"I  went  mad,  I  think.  Not  mad  in  the  way 
we  mean  when  we  say  it,  but  mad  nevertheless; 
and  I  stole  the  child  from  the  man-toad  and  took 
him  with  me  to  the  house  of  my  friend.  No,  I 
could  not  give  the  child  back  to  his  father.  The 
second  day  after  I  had  stolen  him  I  left  my 
friend's  house  during  the  dusk  to  go  to  the  house 
I  had  rented  previously,  having  a  desire  to  see 
for  myself  what  was  occurring.  I  had  discarded 
my  European  clothes — was  dressed  in  full  Chinese 
dress,  and  had  on  a  perfectly  adjusted  wig  with 
long  queue,  could  have  passed  for  a  servant  of 
the  house,  servant  class,  and  had  shaved  my  mous 
tache.  I  felt  perfectly  safe»in  the  evening  from 
chance  of  recognition  should  I  meet  the  man. 
When  I  arrived  at  the  house  it  was  dark,  the  gar- 


SUE     CHUC  119 

den  gate  was  walled  up,  and  a  'To  Let'  sign  fast 
ened  on  the  post. 

"On  my  return  to  my  friend's  I  found  the  place 
in  an  uproar — the  nurse  had  disappeared  with  the 
child.  Everything  that  could  be  done  was  done, 
but,  owing  to  the  necessity  for  secrecy,  so  little 
could  be  done.  At  the  end  of  a  week  I  left  for 
China.  The  night  before  leaving  I,  in  my  Chi 
nese  clothes,  was  walking  down  Dupont  Street 
between  Clay  and  Washington  and  stopped  before 
a  shop  to  look  into  the  depths  for  a  second  at  the 
group  at  the  back,  attracted  by  some  movement 
of  one  of  them.  In  spite  of  the  change  made  by 
the  costume,  for  he  was  now  dressed  as  was  I, 
in  Chinese  clothes,  and  with  what  I  knew  to  be 
a  wig  under  the  round  hat,  I  recognized  the  man, 
my  evil  genius.  As  though  feeling  my  eyes  upon 
him  he  looked  toward  me  and,  as  I  stood  there 
with  the  light  from  the  lamps  falling  full  upon 
me,  recognized  me.  I  looked  into  his  eyes  across 
the  space  of  the  room  for  what  seemed  to  me  an 
eternity,  and  turned  away.  I  knew  he  had  fol 
lowed  me,  and  I  wished  to  hear  what  he  had  to 
say  to  me  and  wished  to  say  to  him  what  I  had 
in  my  heart  to  say,  so  turned  up  the  street  when 
T  reached  the  corner,  thinking  to  draw  him  into  a 
place  I  knew  of  where,  undisturbed,  I  could  have 
speech  with  him.  But  I  had  not  remembered  the 


120  SUE    CHUC 

treacherous  heart  of  the  man,  and  as  we  went  into 
the  alley  he  sprang  upon  me  and  stabbed  me. 

"I  fell  more  from  the  impulse  of  his  weight 
than  from  the  wound,  and  he  fled,  thinking  me 
killed.  The  blow  had  glanced  and  made  a  pain 
ful  but  not  fatal  wound,  and  I  got  to  my  feet, 
stanched  the  bleeding,  and  found  my  way  to 
my  friend's  house,  where  assistance  was  given  me. 
We  both  thought  it  best  that  I  should  keep  to 
my  plans  of  sailing  the  following  day,  taking 
with  me  a  young  Chinaman  who  would  be  able  to 
attend  to  the  dressing  of  the  wound  and  who  had 
been  my  servant  for  years — yes,  it  was  the  man 
you  saw  here.  He  has  grown  old  in  my  service, 
and  has  watched  me  through  all  of  the  years 
with  a  love  and  fidelity  not  usual.  He  was  my 
servant  in  Europe,  too,  and  knew  each  step  in 
the  road  I  had  stumbled  along. 

"I  came  here  to  the  home  of  my  fathers,  mar 
ried  after  a  few  years.  My  wife  has  been  a 
good,  kind  one,  borne  me  children — daughters 
only — no  son  has  come  to  us ;  and  years  ago,  when 
we  knew  that  to  us  would  come  no  son,  we  adopt 
ed  an  orphan,  a  nephew  of  my  wife.  I  have  lived 
for  thirty-odd  years  here  in  a  sort  of  dull  content, 
broken  at  times  by  fierce  fits  of  rebellion  and  re 
morse;  have  never  once  left  this  province;  held 
no  communication  with  the  world  outside  of  the 


SUE    CHUC  121 

small  one  of  my  home  city;  identified  myself  with 
its  interests,  and  felt  a  sort  of  numbed  happiness 
at  times.  They  will  tell  you,"  with  a  grim  smile, 
"that  I  am  called  a  good  and  charitable  man. 

"One  day,  a  few  months  ago,  I  was  coming 
from  the  city,  and  my  chair  was  delayed  by  a 
procession.  As  I  sat  looking  out  upon  the  crowd 
and  down  upon  them  from  my  chair,  I  looked  di 
rectly  into  the  evil  eyes  I  had  never  forgotten. 
The  face  from  dissipation  and  disease  was  changed 
past  recognition,  but  the  eyes  remained  the  same 
and  I  saw  that  the  recognition  had  been  mutual. 
He  was  dressed  in  the  meanest  rags,  one  leg  was 
bound  with  filthy  cloths  and  one  ear  was  gone 
completely — we  know  wthat  that  means — and 
death  was  written  clearly  on  the  scarred,  hid 
eous  face  and  across  the  awful  toothless  mouth 
that  dragged  to  one  side. 

"The  procession  passed  by,  my  coolies  went 
on,  and  when  I  looked  back  a  few  minutes  after 
he  was  not  to  be  seen  among  the  crowd.  A  week 
after,  I  began  to  feel  ill,  not  in  any  way  that 
made  it  possible  for  me  to  determine  the  seat  of 
the  wrong,  but  sufficiently  for  me  to  know  that 
for  some  reason  my  entire  system  was  undergoing 
some  species  of  alteration.  For  several  weeks 
I  thought  it  was  a  possible  condition  due  to  my 
age,  then  came  the  violent  attack  when  you  were 


122  SUE    CHUC 

called  in,  and  I  knew  I  had  been  poisoned — poi 
soned  in  some  devilish  way  where  the  death  comes 
slowly  at  first,  then,  at  a  given  time,  with  a  dash 
like  the  winning  horse  at  a  race.  Your  science 
saved  me,  but  if  I  am  to  regain,  my  strength  I  must 
be  free  of  this  heart  burden  I  bear.  I  must  see 
and  talk  with  the  boyhood  friend  I  robbed  of 
first  born  and  wife;  must  tell  him  all,  as  I  have 
told  you,  and,  late  as  it  is,  make  what  reparation 
I  can.  Will  you  send  for  him?  I  know  his  ad 
dress — most  do,  even  in  this  big  land,  for  he  has 
been  an  angel  of  mercy  to  all  who  have  appealed 
to  him  for  sickness  of  body  or  soul." 

At  these  last  words,  Dr.  Fun's  color  had 
changed.  Surely  but  one  could  be  so  spoken  of — 

and  that  one Ah,  the  wonder  of  life,  the 

mysteries  of  the  human  heart  and  soul! 

uYes,  I  will  send  to  him  for  you — it  is  of  Dr. 
Ah-Fing  you  are  speaking?" 

"Yes,  who  but  he?    You  know  him?" 

"Well!" 

"You  do?  How1  strange!  Bring  him  to  me — 
come  yourself  with  him — it  must  be  you  who 
brings  him;  yes,  it  must  be  you." 

"What  shall  I  say  to  him  that  will  tell  him 
you  desire  his  presence?  It  is  a  long  journey, 
doubly  trying  at  this  time  of  the  year." 

The  other  thought  for  a  moment  deeply. 


SUE    CHUC  123 

"You  will  telegraph  him" — this  was  not  a 
question,  but  a  demand. 

"Yes,  but  the  messenger  must  ride  fifty  miles 
to  the  nearest  telegraph  station.  That  will  take 
two  days." 

The  sick  man  murmured  impatiently  and 
groaned  at  the  delay. 

The  Doctor  had  taken  out  his  notebook,  and, 
pencil  in  hand,  waited  for  the  message. 

Choo-Dan  weakly  wiped  the  big  beads  of  sweat 
from  his  forehead  and  began: 

"I  claim  fulfillment  of  pact.     Choo-Dan." 

Dr.  Fun  waited  a  second.  "No  more?"  he 
asked. 

"No,  that  is  all  that  is  needed  to  bring  either 
of  us  to  the  other  from  the  ends  of  the  earth." 

The  Doctor  added  the  necessary  address,  and 
later,  before  sending,  added  on  his  own  account 
a  message  indicating  the  gravity  of  his  patient's 
condition,  and  signed  his  own  name  as  well,  saw 
the  messenger  started  on  his  long  ride,  and  took 
his  way  back  to  the  hospital. 


CHAPTER   XIV 


;S  HE  entered  his  office  a  burly, 
broad-shouldered  figure  rose  from 
the  couch,  and  a  big,  booming, 
cordial  voice  rang  out: 

"Doctor  Ah-Day-Fun?  Pardon 
the  lack  of  formality  I  have  shown 
by  making  myself  at  home  this  way  in  strange 
quarters,  but  I  bring  satisfactory  credentials  from 
our  friend,  Madame  Jay-San,  who  vouches  for  my 
eminent  respectibility.  I  am  Doctor  Conrad." 

Dr.  Fun  grasped  the  outstretched  hand  and 
shook  it  cordially ;  he  had  heard  much  of  this  man, 
of  his  ability,  his  skill,  and  his  wonderful  bravery. 
"What  good  star  has  guided  you  here,  Doctor 
Conrad?  I  was  only  yesterday  hoping  against 
hope  that  I  should  come  across  some  greatly 
needed  help  in  a  troublesome  case.  When  did 
you  get  in?  But  let  me  order  lights;  this  semi- 
darkness  is  more  trying  than  total,  and  I  see 
you  did  not  order  the  fire  kept  up  well." 

"Oh,  my  dear  fellow,  this  room  seemed  heav 
enly  comfortable  and  that  hard  leather  couch  of 


SUE    CHUC  125 

yours  a  veritable  bed  of  roses  after  the  freezing 
and  jolting  I've  had." 

When  the  big  lamp  was  brought  and  the  light 
poured  upon  them.  Dr.  Conrad  stared  in  wonder 
at  the  other.  "What  a  start  you  gave  me,"  he 
said,  after  a  minute's  amazed  silence.  "I  could 
have  sworn  you  were  the  Doctor  Ah-Fing  of 
thirty  years  ago." 

Dr.  Fun's  eyes  opened,  and  his  breath  came 
quickly,  as  though  the  heart  had  accelerated  its 
speed. 

"Amazing — amazing — and  there  is  not  even  a 
relationship,  is  there,  else  surely  I  should  have 
heard  of  it  from  Madame  Jay?" 

"Not  that  I  am  aware  of,"  Dr.  Fun  answered 
as  carelessly  as  he  could. 

"And  now  come  and  sit  in  this  chair  before 
the  fire  and  tell  me  of  your  trip  and  its  object, 
for  of  course  you  have  not  taken  it  for  the  mere 
pleasure  of  my  society,  much  as  I  should  like  to 
flatter  myself  on  that  score,"  and  he  smiled  upon 
the  other,  who  had  now  seated  himself  before 
the  fire  that  the  servant  had  started  into  life. 

At  that  smile  Dr.  Conrad  murmured  again, 
"Amazing,  amazing,"  and  continued  to  stare  up 
at  him;  then  seeing  a  fleeting  expression  that 
might  mean  discomfort  under  his  gaze,  he  turned 


126  SUE   CHUC 

it  to  the  fire  and  held  out  his  capable  brown 
hands  to  the  dancing  flames. 

"Yes,  I  came  on  matters  other  than  social," 
he  laughed,  "although  to  tell  you  the  truth  I 
did  a  deal  of  thinking  over  the  meeting  with 
you,  for  you  can  tell  me  as  one  who  has  seen 
some  things  I  have  only  got  second-hand  through 
the  reports.  And,  too,  Madame  Jay  was  very 
insistent  that  I  meet  you."  Here  again  he  looked 
at  the  younger  man,  thinking,  "and  I  don't  won 
der  now.  What  does  it  mean?  It's  too  strong 
to  be  mere  accident — why  they  have  the  identical 
tricks  of  manner,  of  voice,  of  gesture — "  and 
he  again  turned  his  gaze  to  the  fire,  and  con 
tinued: 

"Can  you  put  me  up?" 

"Of  course,  of  course,"  assented  Dr.  Fun  cor 
dially.  "You  know  I  myself  have  been  extraor 
dinarily  fortunate  in  regard  to  lodgings ;  my  hosts 
are  the  kindest  of  kind  people,  whose  big  house 
has  more  rooms  in  it  than  they  use,  by  a  score." 

"Natives?" 

"The  wife — the  man  is  European,  but  has  lived 
for  forty  years  here  and  it  is  difficult  to  realize 
that  he  is  not  a  native;  wears  the  dress,  you  know, 
and  all  that." 

"Whew!"  whistled  the  Doctor,  "so  it's  Grant," 
answering  a  look  of  questioning  in  the  other's 


SUE    CHUC  127 

eyes,  "I  don't  know  him  personally,  but  I  knew, 
rather  well  the  son — that  was  a  tragic  case.  How 
do  they — the  father  and  mother — bear  it?" 

"I  have  no  manner  of  finding  out,  nothing  has 
been  said  to  me,  no  reference  even  made  to  him 
or  his  death  since  my  arrival." 

"Ah!  Yes,  of  course  it  would  be  so,"  mused 
the  Doctor.  "I've  lived  the  better  part  of  a 
life-time  here,"  he  added,  stirring  up  the  coals 
with  the  heavy  poker,  his  great  shoulders  humped 
and  his  mane  of  silvering  hair  glinting  in  the 
light  of  the  fire,  "and  many's  the  time  IVe  made 
up  my  mind  to  cut  it  and  go  home,  but" — with 
another  laugh — "I've  never  got  further  than 
Japan  en  route  without  being  homesick  for  it  all 
again.  Guess  I  must  have  been  a  Chinaman  last 
time,"  he  said,  with  a  whimsical  smile.  "Then 
came  along  Mehitable,  my  wife,"  he  added,  "and 
her  heart  was  set  upon  the  heathen  as  she  called 
them,  and  she  was  certain  she  was  elected  to  be 
the  Lord's  right  hand  in  showing  them  the  error 
of  their  ways,  so — well,  we've  just  stayed  along, 
through  famine  and  plagues,  through  uprisings 
and  pestilence.  Sometimes  it's  been  nip  and  tuck, 
and  sometimes  it's  seemed  that  maybe  for  the 
boys'  sakes  we  ought  to  go  back. 

"Yes,"  he  nodded,  "we've  two  big,  strapping 
chaps  of  twelve  and  thirteen,  who  are  up  in 


128  SUE    CHUC 

Shanghai  now  at  school;  next  year  they  are  going 
to  Europe  and  later  will  study  medicine.  I  de 
cided  upon  Germany  for  them;  like  the  severity 
of  the  training  given  in  that  country.  Mehitable 
declares  that  they  are  both  marked  with  the 
passion  for  surgery,  and  it  looks  that  way."  It 
was  noticeable  that  in  speaking  of  his  wife  an 
added  note  of  tenderness  crept  into  the  deep, 
kind  voice,  and  Dr.  Fun  remembered  the  story 
of  their  love  and  marriage  as  Madame  Jay  had 
told  to  him,  with  a  quick  pang — so  had  he 
wished  to  love  a  woman. 

"But  dear  me,  here  I  sit  giving  you  all  the 
details  of  my  family  affairs  as  though  they  could 
be  of  any  interest  to  you,"  and  again  the  big 
laugh  boomed  out. 

Fun  reassured  him  and  asked,  "Are  you  fam 
ished,  will  you  come  up  to  the  house  now  and 
get  a  tub  and  some  dinner?" 

"Will  I?"  and  the  figure  rose  with  alacrity. 

"Oh,  oh !  and  you  did  not  intimate  how  hungry 
you  were,"  Fun  chided. 

"To  tell  the  truth,  I  don't  deserve  to  be,  for 
I  stopped  and  got  a  bowl  of  stew" — at  a  raising 
of  the  other's  eyebrows  he  nodded.  "Yes,  I  know, 
but  the  Chinese  are  such  devilish  good  cooks,  one 
doesn't  let  oneself  think  of — well,  various  things; 
besides,  I'm  hardened  to  sights,  smells,  and  germs. 


SUE    CHUC  129 

Heavens,  man!  One  must  so  become  if  one  is 
to  get  about  here  in  this  land,  you  know." 

After  dinner  that  night,  which  was  served  in 
the  Doctor's  sitting-room  with  the  table  drawn 
up  before  a  cheerful  open  fire,  they  discussed  the 
problems  of  their  profession,  its  fascination,  its 
magnet  qualities,  and  these  men  were  born  physi 
cians,  born  surgeons,  and  each  recognized  in  the 
other  the  fact. 

Finally  the  talk  drifted  to  different  subjects 
and  Dr.  Conrad  drew  the  other  out  to  tell  his 
story,  all  the  time  watching  the  fine,  eager  face, 
the  eyes  that  were  so  like  those  other  eyes,  the 
flash  of  the  strong  white  teeth,  as  the  clean-cut 
lips  widened  in  a  smile,  and  as  the  story  proceeded 
he  dropped  his  hands  to  the  arms  of  his  chair 
and  leaned  forward  in  interest.  At  its  finish  he 
whistled  softly — "That  may  account  for — well, 
for  several  things,"  he  said. 

"Yes,  you  think  so?"  Fun's  voice  was  studiously 
restrained,  but  the  color  came  and  went  in  his 
cheeks  and  his  lips  trembled  slightly. 

"I  thought  aloud?"  inquired  Dr.  Conrad. 
"Yes,  I  see  that  I  did — well,  the  cat's  out  of  the 
bag  now,  I  see  by  your  answer  that  you  have 
thought  of  the  same  possibility." 

"Only  with  a  hope  today,"  and  Fun  related  the 


1 30  SUE    CHUC 

conversation  with  Choo-Dan  and  the  purport  of 
the  telegram. 

"You  would  be  glad?  But  of  course  you 
would.  That  is  what  a  friend  of  mine  would 
designate  a  fool  question." 

"Glad  beyond  words.  Never  have  I  felt  so 
strong  an  inclination,  so  deep  a  respect  and  admi 
ration  for  any  one  as  for  Dr.  Ah-Fing,"  and  with 
a  smile  that  lighted  up  his  face  and  shone  from 
his  eyes,  "to  tell  the  truth,  I'd  give  much  to  be 
related  to  Madame  Jay,  to  have  the  right  to  be 
mothered  by  her — what  an  aunt  to  have  I" 

"Yes,"  laughed  the  Doctor,  "she's  as  good  as 
an  entire  family.  My  Mehitable  declares  she's 
a  saint,  but  I  think  she's  better — a  real  live 
woman,  loving,  tender,  helpful,  the  which  some 
of  the  saints  are  not. 

"Of  course,  if  this  were  story-book  instead  of 
real  life,  you  should  by  rights  have  been  kept  in 
total  ignorance  of  it  all  until  the  dramatic  mo 
ment  arrived  when  that  sinner,  Choo,  announced 
you — parent  and  child.  But  tell  me,  are  you  real 
izing  that  at  least  a  month  must  elapse  before 
Dr.  Ah-Fing  can  get  here,  even  if  he  is  able  to 
leave  immediately?" 

"Yes,  I  realize ;  and  it's  going  to  be  the  longest 
month  I  have  had  in  my  life;  of  course  it's 


SUE    CHUC  131 

foolish  to  count  on  it  too  much,  it  may  be  but 
a  coincidence." 

"Don't  believe  it,"  announced  the  other,  "too 
many  dove-tailing  facts,  besides  the  resemblance. 

"Tomorrow  I  must  get  through  with  some  of 
the  business  that  brought  me  here,  then  I  want 
you  to  show  me  through  the  hospital.  Have  not 
seen  it  for  some  years.  And  now,  if  you  will  point 
the  way,  I  will  go  bedwards.  This  old  place  has 
as  many  corridors  as  a  baronial  castle  and  I  lost 
myself  twice  coming  in  from  my  room  here. 

"Yes,  IVe  everything  anyone  could  want,  too 
much  comfort,  it  will  spoil  me.  We  live  pretty 
simply  up  our  way,  you  know,  and  don't  run 
much  to  embroidered  satin  coverlids.  Good 
night,"  and  looking  Fun  in  the  eyes  he  added, 
"Get  a  good  night's  sleep,  you  need  it," 


CHAPTER   XV 


FTER  the  big  kindly  man  had  been 
shown  on  his  way,  Fun  returned 
to  his  sitting-room  and  sat  down 
before  the  fire  and  fell  into  a  state 
of  semi-consciousness  where  the 
past  became  the  actual;  he  lived 
through  his  boyhood,  through  the  years  of  am 
bition  and  promise,  through  the  crisis  that  marked 
the  wrong  turning;  went  along  the  road  as 
it  turned,  always  leading  down  and  further  down, 
until  his  days  had  become  mere  reflections 
of  the  preceding  poppy-drugged  nights;  then  of 
his  meeting  little  Sue-Chuc,  of  the  day,  when,  to 
give  pleasure  to  a  wronged  and  weary  little  girl, 
he  had  pulled  up  and  for  the  nonce  become  the 
old  Ah-day-Fun,  and  on  and  on  his  fancy  car 
ried  him,  through  the  years  of  work  and  study  in 
Europe — the  tremendous  work,  for  he  had  to 
redeem  those  lost  years  and  had  to  go  to  bed 
each  night  so  body-  brain-  and  heart-weary  that 
the  little  demon  voice  calling,  ever  calling  for 
its  dream-stuff  should  be  unheeded.  Would  he 


SUE    CHUC  133 

ever  have  stilled  that  voice,  so  long  as  life  should 
last  would  he  have  to  fight  it,  mayhap?  At  any 
rate  the  fight  should  be  won,  and  by  him.  Each 
day  that  determination  rose  strong  in  him  and 
helped  him  through.  He  had  found  that  it  must 
be  a  day-to-day  fight,  no  chance  was  he  given  to 
forget  the  danger,  to  grow  weak  or  careless.  He 
smiled  grimly. 

The  clock  struck  the  second  hour  of  the  morn 
ing  and  he  roused  from  his  musings,  rose  from 
the  chair,  raked  together  the  embers  still  glow 
ing,  and  turned  to  put  out  the  light.  As  he  stood 
with  one  hand  outstretched  towards  the  globe,  his 
eyes  rested  upon  the  picture  of  the  woman  in  the 
panel  photograph  opposite  his  desk  and  the  pic 
tured  eyes  gazed  back  into  his;  the  peculiarity  of 
that  picture  was  that  those  remarkable  eyes  fol 
lowed,  some  trick  of  focus  or  light,  always  from 
any  point  of  view  one  could  turn  around  and  see 
the  eyes  upon  one. 

Theodocia  Melvin  had  laughed  over  it  as  she 
gave  it  to  him,  saying  "You'll  have  to  mind  your 
Ps  and  Qs,  boy,  for  you  can't  escape  my  eyes!" 

For  the  first  time  he  could  look  at  the  pictured 
face  without  the  surge  of  feeling  that  had  been  his 
companion  for  so  many  years,  with  no  bitterness 
of  renunciation — how  could  one  renounce  that 
which  one  had  no  hope  of  ever  attaining? — with- 


134  SUE    CHUC 

out  the  longing  even,  he  felt,  and  with  a  quick 
heart  throb  he  realized  that  his  freedom  from 
that  old  obsession  was  come.  Was  it  a  crime 
against  that  years-old  passion  that  had  been  his 
through  drugged  dreams  and  hard  struggling 
awakenings?  Then  he  heard  again  in  memory 
her  voice  as  she  said  to  him  that  day  when  he  had 
made  one  last  effort  to  rouse  her  at  least  to  a  real 
ization  of  what  it  was  she  stood  for  to  him: 

'Tis  a  mad,  mad  obsession,  Fun ;  I  am  old 
enough  to  be  your  mother,  boy,  and  the  day  will 
come  when  you  will  look  back  on  this  madness 
of  yours  for  what  it  is." 

The  day  had  come. 

The  following  day  brought  one  of  Sue's  let 
ters,  and  his  look,  as  he  held  the  square  en 
velope  in  his  hand  and  saw  the  familiar  char 
acteristic  writing  so  instinct  with  purpose,  with 
force,  was  different  from  what  it  had  been  at 
any  previous  time. 

They,  Dr.  Conrad  and  he,  were  back  in  his 
sitting  room  after  a  strenuous  day  and  the  tea 
tray  was  on  the  small  table  by  the  fire  in  front 
of  which  they  sat,  when  the  servant  brought  in 
the  mail.  Dr.  Conrad's  eyes  were  upon  him  as 
he  took  up  the  letter  and  they  noted  the  expres 
sion  of  gladness — was  it  something  more? — with 
which  he  eagerly  opened  and  read  through  the 


SUE    CHUG  135 

many  pages,  after  a  brief  apology.  As  he  came 
to  the  last,  he  threw  back  his  head  and  laughed, 
a  clear,  ringing,  boyish  laugh  that  made  the  years 
drop  away  from  him. 

"This  is  from  the  small" — "sister"  he  started 
to  say,  then  amended  it  to — "girl  I  told  you  of; 
she  is  taking  matters  very  much  into  her  own 
hands,  I  see  by  it,  and  already  assuming  the  po 
sition  of  mentor  and  friend  of  some  half  dozen 
young  people,  the  group  containing  an  old  China 
man  of  sixty  and  a  young  scamp  of  twelve."  At 
the  Doctor's  interested  expression  he  said, 
"Would  you  care  to  see  it?" 

The  Doctor  held  out  his  hand  and  Fun  gave 
the  letter  to  him.  Glancing  first  at  the  signa 
ture,  the  Doctor  turned  to  the  first  page: 

"New  York,  November  I2th. 
"FuN  DEAR: 

"You  are  absolutely  exigent  in  your  demands 
for  future  details.  I  had  been  thinking  up  to 
the  time  your  last  letter  came  that  you  knew  my 
life  like  a  book,  and  here  comes  a  letter  with 
a  list  of  questions  like  one  of  our  old  exams. 
Aren't  you  ever  going  to  be  assured  as  to  my  abil 
ity  to  keep  well  and  nourished?  Any  one  would 
think,  to  read  your  questions,  either  that  I  had 
been  reduced  to  utter  idiocy  with  no  sense  of 
proportion,  or  was  living  on  chocolate  creams 


136  SUE    CHUG 

and  ice-cream  soda;  so,  just  to  set  your  mind  at 
rest  on  both  points,  I  will  give  you  a  sample  menu 
of  one  of  our  days. 

"One  morning  I  get  breakfast,  one  morning 
Chum  does.  We  generally  have  eggs  in  some 
form,  toast,  fruit,  and  tea  or  coffee.  For  lunch 
eon,  for  instance  to-day,  we  had  broiled  lamb 
chops,  baked  potatoes,  apple  sauce,  and  one  piece 
of  jelly  cake  each.  For  dinner,  it  being  my  day 
to  cater,  we  had  for  piece  de  resistance  one  of 
our  casserole  dishes — foundation,  minced  beef 
with  macaroni,  onion,  carrots  and  turnips  cooked 
in  the  same  casserole,  which  is  kept  hermetically 
sealed  during  the  process  of  cooking  and  the  cover 
removed  only  when  it  is  on  the  table.  You  see, 
that  gives  us  meat  and  vegetables.  Then  we  had 
stewed  apricots  and  home-made  cookies  for  des 
sert. 

"Our  table  is  really  pretty  as  can  be.  We  got 
the  Japanese  porcelain  because  it's  effective  and 
because  it's  cheap,  and  we  always  twist  a  fresh 
serviette  around  our  casserole  so  it  looks  festive. 
Likewise,  we  avoid  a  lot  of  dishwashing  by  the 
casserole  process,  simplifies  things  mightily,  and 
neither  Chum  nor  I  want  to  waste  time  over  un 
necessary  work. 

"We  vary  the  menu,  and  we  keep  in  mind  the 
nutritive  values  of  the  foodstuffs  and  the  proper 


SUE    CHUC  137 

balance.  You  see  we  are  not  suffering — is  your 
physician's  soul  satisfied?  I  assure  you  there  is 
the  right  amount  of  carbohydrates  and  all  the 
others. 

"Yes,  we  are  working  hard,  but  not  overwork 
ing,  and  I,  for  one,  get  eight  hours'  sleep  each 
night,  or  if  any  get  mislaid  I  make  them  up  on 
Sunday.  Those  precious  sleep  hours!  And  now 
may  I  tell  you  about  the  other  and  much  more 
interesting  things? 

"I  mentioned  to  you  that  we  were  to  meet  some 
of  the  Settlement  workers,  friends  of  that  nice 
Miss  Tobin.  Well,  we  have,  and  such  a  de 
lightful  lot  of  girls  and  women  as  they  are,  and 
they  have  taken  to  us  as  we  to  them,  so  that  we 
feel  our  sociable  time  all  too  short.  One  in  par 
ticular  has  won  my  heart.  She's  not  exactly  one 
of  the  workers — that  is,  she  does  not  give  up  all 
of  her  life  to  the  work  as  do  most  of  the  others, 
but  she  teaches  in  the  night  classes  and  has  a 
class  of  girls  who  think  the  sun  rises  and  sets  in 
her.  She's  one  of  six  sisters,  awfully  rich  once — 
had  horses,  carriages,  maids,  governesses,  trips 
to  Europe,  and  all  the  rest  of  it.  Then  some 
thing  happened  and  everything  went,  so  the  girls 
had  to  earn  their  own  living,  and  you  ought  to 
hear  them  tell  of  it  when  they  'reminisce.' 

"Now  all  of  them  are  married  but  my  girl, 


138  SUE    CHUC 

and  one  sister  who's  as  good  as,  being  engaged 
and  so  taken  up  with  the  plans  for  her  new  life 
that  she's  not  much  comfort  to  my  girl,  and 
after  the  wedding,  which  is  to  take  place  in  June, 
the  other,  whose  name,  by  the  way,  is  Phoebe 
Brenning,  is  going  to  be  left  alone,  for  she  won't 
go  to  live  with  any  of  the  married  sisters,  al 
though  she  seems  to  be  devoted  to  them  one  and 
all,  and  there  is  going  to  be  a  pretty  lonely  girl 
in  that  little  apartment.  Chum  and  I  are  planning 
to  have  her  here  if  she'll  come. 

"The  Holdings  are  going  to  Europe  to  live. 
It  seems  that  Dr.  Holding's  old  father  relented 
before  he  died  and  left  all  his  millions  to  the 
Doctor,  and,  instead  of  sailing  in  and  enjoying 
them,  what  do  you  think  they  are  planning  to  do  ? 
Well,  they  are  going  to  all  of  the  big  capitals 
to  see — no,  not  pictures  and  fascinating  old  build 
ings,  and  all  that,  but  to  see  how  the  very  poor 
live,  what  are  the  problems,  and  what  the  means 
used  to  deal  with  them.  Then,  after  they  have 
studied  it  all,  they  are  going  to  settle  down  in  the 
worst  place,  where  they  think  there  is  most  work 
to  do  and  fewest  workers  with  knowledge  and 
money,  and  spend  those  millions  in  the  work. 

"I  gasped  when  I  heard  it.  Did  you  ever  see 
or  know  of  such  colossal  single-mindedness?  And 
the  wonderful  part  of  it  is  that  it  does  not  seem 


SUE    CHUC  139 

anything  extraordinary  to  them  or,  as  far  as  I 
can  discover,  to  any  one  of  the  lot.  They  have 
three  of  the  loveliest  children  you  ever  saw,  per 
fect  little  cherubs. 

"Now  for  a  piece  of  news:  Your  Mrs.  Theo- 
docia,  and  their  Mrs.  Theodocia,  is  coming  to 
New  York  shortly,  and  I  shall  see  her.  I'm 
dreadfully  excited  over  it.  Do  you  suppose  she 
will  like  me — oh,  do  you?  Don't  believe  I  ever 
so  wanted  any  one  to,  except  you,  in  my  life 
before. 

"You  never  saw  such  a  quantity  of  protegees 
and  adopted  babies  and  children  as  there  are 
among  these  people ;  every  one  more  or  less  seems 
to  be  bent  on  rescuing  sick  and  crippled  and  woe 
ful  little  youngsters,  and  you  would  think  it  the 
most  natural  thing  in  the  world  to  go  through 
life  picking  up  lost,  strayed,  and  stolen  babies, 
and  they  don't  make  any  fuss  about  it,  either. 

"I  opened  my  eyes  until  the  women  roared  at 
me,  one  day,  because  they  talked  of  Mary  Tobin's 
children.  It  seems  she  adopted  the  first  one 
years  ago,  and  became  so  interested  in  baby  tend 
ing  that  when  it  got  so  it  was  too  old  to  need 
her  much  she  was  lonely,  and  she  took  another, 
and  now  there  are  a  round  half-dozen  up  on  her 
farm  getting  round  and  rosy,  and  she  runs  up  for 
week-ends  to  play  with  them.  Then,  the  married 


140  SUE    CHUC 

workers  never  mind  adding  some  forlorn  little 
mite  to  their  always  well-filled  nurseries,  and  no 
one  seems  to  think  of  germs  or  inherited  procliv 
ities  or  anything,  in  fact,  but  just  kindness.  Evi 
dently  their  belief  in  the  power  of  environment 
is  big. , 

"Chum  and  I  caught  the  fever  and  took  in  a 
broken-legged,  ugly,  sore-eyed  kitten,  and  it's  re 
sponding  to  our  care  so  that  you  would  never 
know  it  for  the  same  little  animal.  Heaven  only 
knows,  we  may  yet  take  a  baby! 

"Oh,  did  I  tell  you  that  on  one  of  my  trips 
out  to  'Cosy  Corner'  I  met  one  of  the  girls  from 
Miss  Elliot's,  and  that  she  was  so  cordial  to  me, 
and  invited  me  to  come  and  visit  her  at  her  home 
— which  is  only  a  mile  from  our  little  place  ?  It's 
a  big,  gorgeous  house  set  in  the  midst  of  acres 
and  acres  of  grounds  and  is  built  on  the  site  of 
the  old  farmhouse  where  her  father  was  born. 
Never  knew  she  was  particularly  interested  in  me 
at  Miss  Elliot's,  but  it  seems  she's  shy  and  thought 
/  thought  she  was  stupid,  which,  to  be  honest, 
I  did.  Don't  think  so  now.  I  told  her  I  was 
working  like  mad  and  had  hardly  a  moment  to 
call  my  own,  but  she  insisted  and  said  she  would 
drive  over  and  get  me  the  following  day — Sun 
day.  She  did,  and  I  went.  Had  a  very  good 
time,  and  her  mother  and  father  were  charming 


SUE    CHUC  141 

to  me.  Something  came  up  about  my  being  Chi 
nese,  and  the  mother  asked  me  if  many  of  my 
own  countrywomen  went  in  for  college  and  a 
profession.  Said  she  knew  of  the  Japanese  nobil 
ity  having  sent  their  daughters,  in  several  in 
stances,  to  Europe  and  America,  but  thought  the 
Chinese  nobility  more  conservative. 

"It  did  not  strike  me  until  later  that  she  was 
inferring  me  to  be  of  noble  birth,  and  when  it 
did  I  nearly  had  a  fit  laughing — oh,  oh,  how  de 
licious  !  If  she  could  have  seen  Mai-den's  rooms 
in  the  Alley,  and  if  she  could  have  seen  me  when 
I  first  knew  you — ugly  little,  flat-faced  thing,  look 
ing  precisely  like  a  Japanese  pug  dog,  all  eyes 
and  mouth  and  no  nose  to  speak  of,  dirty,  no 
clothes  but  those  old  greeney-black  coat  and  trous 
ers  and  an  old  piece  of  sacking  for  an  apron,  poor 
red,  cracked  little  paws,  and  half  the  time  bare 
feet,  and  old  broken  slippers  to  wear  in  cases  of 
extreme  dress-up ! 

"Now  I'm  puzzled  to  know  if  I  should  by 
rights  explain  things  to  them.  I  will  think  it 
over  and  do  what  seems  the  right  or  necessary 
thing  to  me.  In  answer  to  the  father's  questions 
I  told  them  how  we  came  to  have  'Cosy  Corner,' 
and  that  led  up  to  old  Tonkey-Lo  and  to  the  boys, 
and  I  gave  them  in  my  very  best  style  an  account 
of  them  all,  which  seemed  to  interest  them  greatly. 


142  SUE    CHUC 

Eleanor,  that's  the  daughter,  said  she  would  go 
to  see  them  some  day,  especially  to  get  acquainted 
with  the  old  Chinaman  and  Bub.  She  will  prob 
ably  forget  all  about  it,  however,  so  I  need  not 
worry  about  a  descent  upon  them  of  a  fashion 
able  young  lady  seated  in  a  most  up-to-date  Victo 
ria  with  the  correctest  of  correct  English  coach 
men  and  footmen  on  the  box.  All  of  which, 
should  it  by  chance  occur,  would  fill  old  Tonkey- 
Lo's  soul  with  consternation. 

"You  guessed  right,  dear  Fun,  I  do  not  like 
Dr.  Z.,  but  as  it's  only  a  case  of  'Dr.  Fell,'  and 
I  have  no  reason  in  the  world  for  my  antagonism, 
shall  not  let  the  feeling  get  the  better  of  me.  He 
lectures  well  and  I  learn  under  him,  appreciate  his 
gifts,  but  still  can't  look  at  him.  It's  absurd, 
and  I  know  it.  Mrs.  Holding,  who  knows  him 
and  saw  me  meet  him  once  at  the  Settlement,  rec 
ognized  my  feeling,  and  when  I  explained  what, 
after  all,  is  so  unexplainable,  she  said:  'Yes,  those 
things  occur.  Probably  you  two  hurt  each  other 
last  time  and  have  brought  back  a  memory  of 
it  that  manifests  in  this  embodiment  as  instinctive 
antipathy  on  your  part.  Doubtless  you  were  the 
one  to  inflict  the  hurt.  I  notice  it  is,  as  a  rule, 
the  ones  who  hurt  who  have  the  sense  of  wrong 
most  developed  !'  Then,  when  my  eyes  had  begun 
to  'pop,'  as  the  boys  say,  she  was  called  away  and 


SUE    CHUG  143 

I  have  not  had  a  moment  from  that  day  to  this 
to  ask  her  what  on  earth  she  meant.  Never  sup 
posed  she,  of  all  women,  was  given  to  'spooki- 
ness,'  she  appears  the  quintessence  of  practicality. 
"Do  you  know,  Fun,  you  have  never  told  me 
how  you  came  to  met  Mrs.  Theodocia.  Must  I 
not  ask?  Don't  want  to  be  a  nuisance,  but  should 
so  like  to  know.  Every  time  I  go  to  see  the  boys 
I  hear  more  about  her,  and  won't  I  just  love  to 
see  her  in  the  flesh!  Your 

"SUE." 

"P.  S. — I  opened  this  to  tell  you  of  the  awful 
thing  that  has  happened :  Just  heard  from  Casey, 
who  came  up  especially  to  tell  me.  The  horses 
ran  away  when  Eleanor  and  her  mother  were  out 
yesterday,  and  the  carriage  was  overturned;  both 
Eleanor  and  her  mother  were  badly  injured,  the 
mother  fatally.  Oh,  I  am  so  grieved.  Will  drop 
things  and  go  out  there  on  the  5.10  train.  I  might 
be  able  to  be  of  some  use  to  Eleanor.  S." 

Dr.  Conrad  folded  the  sheets,  returned  them, 
and,  lying  back  on  his  chair,  said:  "Good  stuff, 
there,  Doctor;  how  alive  that  girl  is.  She  will 
be  a  big  force  in  the  work  here — if  she  comes," 
he  added. 

"If  she  comes?  Why — why,  she  is  working 
for  that  very  thing,  you  know." 

"Yes,  I  know;  but  three  years  is  a  long  time, 


144  SUE    CHUC 

and  it  just  struck  me  as  I  read  that  letter,  that, 
with  her  very  broad  outlook,  and  the  possibili 
ties  for  interesting  work  right  there  she  might, 
maybe,  get  to  think  this  rather  special  field  lim 
ited  and  stay  there."  He  watched  Fun's  face  as 
he  said  this,  and  saw  the  sudden  gravity  that 
chased  the  laugh  from  his  lips,  and  saw  the  look 
of  apprehension  in  the  eyes,  inwardly  chuckling. 

"Yes,  my  friend,  were  I  you,  I  would,  I  think, 
get  that  young  lady  to  come  out  here  much  sooner 
than  was  planned." 

uBut  her  diploma,  Doctor!" 

"Yes,"  dryly  answered  Dr.  Conrad,  "to  be  sure, 
her  diploma !  Well,  well,  time  will  tell — and  now 
if  you'll  let  me  see  a  photograph  of  her  I'll  be 
obliged  to  you.  She  described  herself  so  minutely, 
if  without  embellishment,  am  rather  curious  to 
see  what  a  camera  makes  of  her." 

Fun's  hand  went  involuntarily  toward  his 
pocket,  then  stayed  itself,  and,  walking  to  his 
desk,  he  took  from  a  drawer  a  framed  photo 
graph  and  handed  it  to  Dr.  Conrad. 

"Umph — this  the  only  one?" 

"No,  I  have  another,  but  I  cannot  get  it  at 
present.  It  is,  eh — it  is  going  to  be  more  suitably 
framed." 

"I  see,  I  see."  And  the  Doctor  smiled  under 
cover  of  his  hand;  then  sat  studying  the  picture. 


SUE    CHUC  145 

At  last  he  handed  it  back  and  looked  keenly  at 
the  other. 

"She's  that  rara  avis,  a  beautiful  ugly  woman, 
than  which  nothing  is  more  dangerous.  She  does 
not  seem  ugly  to  you?"  he  inquired. 

"No,  not  ugly " 

"Beautiful?" 

"Yes,  I  think  she  is  beautiful." 

"She  is,  my  dear  fellow;  but  she's  ugly,  too — 
her  description  of  herself  was  perfect,  as  far  as 
it  went.  Magnetism?" 

"Oh,  that — yes,"  and  Fun  smiled. 

"Umph — yes,  to  be  sure — there  would  be  that. 
I  see  that  our  friend  Mrs.  Melvin  is  to  be  in 
New  York  soon,  and  will  meet  Miss  Sue;  should 
like  to  watch  the  meeting  and  then  get  Theodocia 
off  in  a  corner  and  hear  what  she  has  to  tell. 
Never  have  known  any  one  who  read  character  so 
correctly  as  she  does — only  knew  her  to  fail  once 
in  an  absolutely  correct  reading — and  that  would 
make  a  story  in  itself. 

"Thanks,  greatly,  for  letting  me  read  the  let 
ter  from  the  little  one — she's  a  wee  thing,  I  be 
lieve." 

"Yes,  only  to  here" — and  Fun  touched  lightly 
with  his  finger  a  spot  on  his  breast. 

"Yes?  So  little — umph!  What  one  might  call 
heart-high;  well,  the  little  women  are  very  ap- 


146  SUE    CHUC 

pealing  to   us  big   fellows,"   he   added,   with  a 
twinkle. 

"And  now  if  you  will  take  me  to  the  labora 
tory  I  will  take  great  joy  in  demonstrating  to  you 
the  truth  of  those  statements  I  made  you  to-day, 
and  which,  by  your  face,  I  plainly  saw  you  po 
litely  doubted." 


CHAPTER   XVI 

iR.  AH-FING  answered  the  tele 
gram  immediately,  and  the  answer 
was  directed  to  Dr.  Fun,  who  read 
it  and  took  it  to  Choo-Dan.  The 
man  reached  eager  hands  toward 
him  as  he  entered  the  room,  and 
Fun  handed  him  the  dispatch.  The  wording  was 
most  direct : 

"Leaving  to-day — travel  as  rapidly  as  possible 
— tell  patient.  An-FiNG." 

Choo-Dan  gave  a  long  sigh  that  was  almost  a 
groan,  but  his  face  had  cleared  and  brightened. 
"I  can  sleep  now,"  he  said,  and  almost  straight 
away  closed  his  eyes  and  fell  into  sleep. 

Dr.  Fun  took  the  chair  by  his  bedside,  deter 
mined  to  stay  and  watch  by  him,  for  the  sudden 
desire  for  sleep  and  its  immediate  coming  showed 
to  his  practised  eye  the  extreme  tension  under 
which  the  sick  man  had  been  living,  and  he  wished 
to  assure  himself  that  the  utter  relaxation  brought 
in  its  train  healing  properties.  So  he  gently 
clasped  the  thin  ivory-colored  wrist,  and  with  fin- 


148  SUE    CHUC 

ger  on  pulse,  waited  and  watched.  At  last,  with 
a  nod  of  assent,  as  though  to  some  question  of 
an  invisible  questioner,  he  dropped  the  wrist 
gently  and  sat  back  in  the  chair. 

His  gaze  traveled  about  the  big  room  with  its 
strange  medley  of  furniture.  This  had  been  the 
patient's  private  apartment,  a  room  from  which 
every  one  was  excluded  but  his  old  servant,  up 
to  the  time  of  his  illness,  but  as  he  regained  a 
slight  degree  of  strength  and  could  be  moved  with 
safety,  he  had  ordered  a  bed  set  up  in  this,  his 
particular  room.  Fun,  looking  about  it  and  con 
trasting  it  with  the  remainder  of  the  house, 
which,  so  much  of  it  as  he  had  seen,  made  abso 
lutely  no  concessions  to  foreign  taste  but  was 
distinctly  and  characteristically  Chinese,  almost 
barbarically  sumptuous,  yet  strictly  of  the  land, 
could  but  marvel  at  this  newest  proof  to  him  of 
the  truth  of  his  theory  of  the  many  selves  each  of 
us  possesses. 

Here  was  every  indication  of  the  man  of  schol 
arly  tastes;  of  the  man  with  a  passion  for  scien 
tific  investigation,  of  wide  culture,  deepest  inter 
est  in  all  of  the  world's  problems.  The  cases  that 
lined  the  walls  held  an  astonishing  array  of  books. 
Fun,  rising  softly,  went  over  to  the  opposite 
side  and  glanced  at  the  titles,  and  his  eyebrows 
rose  in  the  manner  so  peculiar  to  him  in  deepen- 


SUE    CHUC  149 

ing  amazement  as  he  read,  and  in  reading  recog 
nized  what  a  veritable  imprisonment  had  been  the 
long  years  to  a  man  whose  mind  had  possessed 
such  depth  and  breadth  as  to  need  this  mental 
food.  No  possibility  of  exchange  of  thought, 
none  of  the  stimulation  from  contact  with  other 
minds  of  its  kind — how  had  the  man  stood  it? 

On  the  walls  in  the  scant  space  left  between 
top  of  book-shelves  and  ceiling  were  a  few  pic 
tures,  simple  little  water-colors,  amateurish  to  a 
degree,  yet  carrying  in  their  faded  tones  and  misty 
outlines  a  suggestion  of  delicacy  of  handling,  of 
loving  appreciation  of  the  beauties- the  unskilled 
hand  was  depicting,  that  made  the  small  sketches 
charming. 

A  great  roll-top  desk,  closed,  stood  near  one 
window,  and,  in  front  of  an  open  fireplace,  an  al 
most  unprecedented  thing  in  a  Chinese  house,  were 
placed  two  chairs,  one  a  big  arm  chair  worn  by 
long  years  of  use  into  almost  a  mold  of  the 
form  so  used  to  it;  opposite,  a  light,  rather  fragile 
chair,  whose  back  and  seat  were  of  the  cross-stitch 
Berlin  woolwork  so  dear  to  the  hearts  of  our 
mothers  in  the  early  days  of  their  young  woman 
hood;  and,  hanging  to  the  knobs  of  one  of  the 
uprights  at  the  back  of  the  chair,  was  a  faded 
and  worn  little  flowered  silk  bag. 

Immediately  Dr.  Fun  recognized  the  little  frail 


1 50  SUE    CHUC 

• 
chair  as  the  room's  shrine,  saw  in  fancy  the  slight 

young  figure  that  doubtless  the  sick  man  had  felt 
was  there  on  it  by  his  side.  The  small  silk  work- 
bag  contained  thimble  and  silk  reel,  and  who 
knows  what  trifle,  to  love's  eyes  greater  than  any 
museum  held — and  if  his  thought  was  founded 
on  fact — the  little  figure  that  his  fancy  saw  in 
the  chair  was — his  mother.  His  breath  came 
quickly — the  young  mother  whose  heart  had  been 
too  frail  to  bear  the  burden  of  the  knowledge 
that  her  first-born  had  been  stolen,  and  so  had 
broken.  Science  called  that  sudden  stopping  by 
a  learned  name,  and  had  facts  and  figures  to  prove 
it  a  disease — but  love  knew  it  for  what  it  was  in 
truth. 

Just  then  the  sick  man  stirred  and  turned  his 
head  toward  the  side  of  the  room  where  Dr.  Fun 
stood,  opened  his  eyes  and  looked  at  the  young 
figure  standing  with  one  hand  laid  as  though  in 
caress  upon  the  back  of  the  little  chair. 

There  was  a  fire  in  the  fireplace,  and  the  danc 
ing  flames  cast  a  flicker  over  the  face  of  the  man 
that  made  the  features  look  as  though  struggling 
for  composure,  and  Choo-Dan  sat  up,  hanging 
to  the  bed  curtains  for  support,  the  better  to  see 
that  face  so  like  the  one  he  had  not  looked  upon 
for  thirty-odd  years,  and  that  he  knew  he  must 


SUE    CHUC  151 

look  upon  so  soon.    What  would  he  see  written 
on  it,  as  he  told  his  tale? 

The  days  passed — one  week,  two  weeks,  three 
weeks,  and  now  any  time  they  might  expect  to 
hear  that  Dr.  Ah-Fing  was  within  a  day's  travel. 

The  time  had  been  a  trying  one.  Fun  had 
worked  feverishly  through  the  days  and  at  night 
walked  and  walked  through  the  most  densely  pop 
ulated  parts  of  the  great  city,  trying  for  distrac 
tion,  for  fatigue  so  great  that,  when  at  last  he 
would  sink  upon  his  bed  he  might  sleep.  He  forced 
himself  to  see,  to  miss  nothing  of  the  various 
phases  of  the  native  life,  the  life  of  his  people, 
he  reminded  himself  constantly.  Each  ugly,  fes 
tering  sore  in  the  city's  body  he  forced  himself 
to  observe,  to  dwell  upon,  to  formulate  ways  and 
means  for  healing;  and,  as  he  thought,  there 
grew  in  his  heart  the  knowledge  that  here  and 
now  was  the  work  indeed  for  every  faculty  he 
possessed.  Never  had  the  realization  come  to 
him  so  clearly  before,  as  during  those  long,  long 
walks. 

He  had  said  often  to  himself — each  time  that 
a  doubt  of  the  value  of  his  work  had  crept  into 
his  mind — that  the  work  he  had  selected  to  be 
his  life's  expression  was  good;  each  time  that  the 
sense  of  aloneness  had  come  to  him,  that  there 


152  SUE    CHUC 

could  be  no  loneliness  where  his  brothers'  need 
was  so  great;  but  never,  never  had  the  realization 
come  to  him  of  its  greatness  and  of  his  power 
to  do  much  until  he  had  been  driven  by  his  own 
need  for  distraction  into  the  streets — those  long, 
twisted,  narrow  streets,  with  their  multitudinous 
shops  lit  with  lights  that  only  brought  out  more 
strongly  the  fact  of  their  crass  pandering  to  the 
human  demand  for  alleviation,  for  help  to  bear 
the  cross  that  fate  had  fastened  to  the  patient 
shoulders. 

The  certain  air  of  cheerfulness,  he  grew  to  real 
ize,  was  in  a  measure  due  to  the  coloring  of  most 
of  the  goods  for  sale.  The  entire  gamut  would 
be  run  in  the  windows  of  a  crockery  shop,  tiers 
on  tiers  of  bowls,  in  nests  and  singly,  ranged  up 
to  the  apex  of  the  pyramid  of  shelves,  brilliant 
scarlet,  deep  yellow,  strong  greens  and  blues; 
dishes  of  shapes  and  sizes  not  seen  outside  of  the 
native  wares,  every  variety  of  tea  pots,  tea  bowls, 
and  comfit  jars.  Scattered  among  the  articles  of 
service  were  chubby,  placid-faced  porcelain  and 
pottery  goods,  grotesque,  yet  in  color  brilliant 
and  adding  another  note  to  the  scale. 

How  his  people  loved  and  brought  into  daily, 
hourly  use  in  their  lives  the  strong,  crude  color 
ings.  The  long  street  that  was  his  particular  fa 
vorite  because  it  was  so  universal  a  marketing 


SUE    CHUC  153 

place  after  the  night  had  come,  held  its  contrasts 
so  great  that  it  was  kaleidoscopic  in  its  effect  upon 
him.  Here  came  the  poorer  of  the  city's  people 
at  an  hour  when  the  finer  and  richer  shops  had 
closed  their  doors  and  drawn  the  heavy  sliding 
blinds  into  place  before  their  windows.  Here 
was  no  aristocracy  of  trade,  no  districts  given 
over  to  special  trades,  but  a  jumble  of  shops 
lighted  by  their  smoking  torches  or  lamps. 

A  roast-meat  shop  whose  smoky  interior  was  a 
harmony  in  browns;  weird,  twisted,  and  con 
torted  shapes  of  bird  and  fish  and  flesh,  smoked, 
salted,  pickled,  in  tint  from  palest  umber  to  burnt 
sienna  and  darkest  shadowed  tones. 

The  meat-ball  and  fried-potato  shops  held  his 
interest.  The  half-naked  men  standing  back  of 
the  big  kettles  of  boiling  grease  with  the  glow 
of  the  red-hot  charcoal  flushing  their  yellow  skins 
and  the  grayish  smoke  from  the  cooking  food  wa 
vering  across  them  in  uncertain  clouds.  Always 
were  these  shops  busy,  and,  in  the  groups  that 
stood  to  watch  or  to  buy,  to  take  away  in  brown 
speckled  paper  cornucopias,  or  to  stand  at  the 
long  counter  and  eat  the  food  hot  from  the  fat, 
were  many  types,  types  quite  unfamiliar  to  him 
during  his  years  in  the  San  Francisco  Chinese 
Quarter. 

He  was  constantly  being  surprised  at  the  indi- 


154  SUE    CHUC 

cations  he  got  of  the  tremendous  vitality  of  the 
race.  There  would  be  old,  old  men  and  women, 
carrying  on  their  faces  and  bodies  the  signs  of 
disease  long  bornet  yet  with  the  spirit  of  desire, 
of  acquisitiveness,  a  joy  in  the  mere  animal  appe 
tites  that  showed  how  deep  down  was  the  fountain 
of  vitality  in  their  beings.  And  he  marveled  at 
the  wonderful  staying  power  of  the  race,  the  grip 
it  had  on  the  Cosmic  force  that  made  it,  in  spite 
of  plague,  pestilence,  chronic  diseases  of  many 
kinds,  a  race  that  peopled  its  quarter  of  the  globe 
faster  than  the  scourges  that  came  to  it  cleared 
its  cities  and  fields.  What  was  this  race  working 
out  of,  or  into,  he  wondered? 

He  liked  standing  just  back  of  the  crowd  of 
women  and  children  who  gathered  in  front  of 
the  silk  or  fruit  shops,  to  hear  the  comments  and 
watch  the  never-stopping  game  that  went  on  be 
tween  youth,  with  its  demands  for  its  own,  and 
age,  with  its  tolerance  and  inclination  toward  in 
dulgence  of  the  youthful  fancy,  and  many  a  pretty 
picture  did  he  bring  back.  One  in  particular 
clung  to  his  memory: 

Quite  close  to  the  railing  that  kept  off  too  eager 
shoppers  from  the  small  stock  of  cheap  silks  of  a 
certain  small  shop,  stood  an  oldish  woman  and  a 
girl,  poor,  but  not  of  the  very  poor,  decently 
dressed,  with  neatly  done  hair,  and  tucked  into 


SUE    CHUC  155 

the  great  flattened  toil  that  hung  over  the  side  of 
the  girl's  small-shapely  head  was  placed  a  wrought 
silver  filigree  rose,  new  evidently,  as  one  reddened 
hand  ever  and  anon  reached  up  to  make  certain 
of  its  safety.  The  two,  mother  and  daughter 
seemingly,  were  looking  with  longing  eyes  at  a 
piece  of  prune-colored  satin,  and  Fun  listened  to 
the  dialogue  that  ensued. 

The  girl,  with  a  long  sigh:  *  'Tis  useless — my 
eyes  ache  from  longingly  looking — let's  go, 
mother." 

"Nay,  wait  a  moment,  child  of  impatience!  It 
may  be  that  we  can  get  enough  for  the  coat,  and, 
with  apple-green  facings,  you  would  find  favor  in 
Chell-Fen's  eyes,"  and  her  eyes  lifted  to  the  round 
young  face  beside  her  attested  as  to  the  favor 
found  in  her  own  eyes  by  this  daughter. 

The  girl  looked  wistfully  at  the  satin  and  sighed 
again,  and  said  again,  "Come,  mother;  let  us  go." 

The  older  woman  was  deep  in  calculation,  and 
began  to  explain  to  her  how  it  might  be  managed, 
reciting,  as  though  it  were  a  litany,  the  list  of  in 
gredients  that  might  with  safety  be  left  out  of  the 
dishes  for  the  husband  and  father  and  the  many 
sons. 

"What  am  I  a  famous  cook  for,  if  I  cannot 
fool  the  palates  of  these  men  children?"  she  said, 
with  a  movement  of  the  shoulders  indicative  of 


1 56  SUE    CHUC 

uttermost  scorn  of  the  masculine  discernment,  and 
then  she  added,  her  face  brightening  as  though  in 
sudden  memory, 

"Old  fool  that  I  am!  there  is  my  burial-dress 
money;  what  will  I  need  of  fine  clothing  when  my 
body  is  put  into  its  box?"  and  then  she  added 
cheerfully:  "we  come  of  a  family  who  live  to 
twice  my  age,  so  mayhap  I  will  find  the  chance  to 
save  enough  before  that  time  anyway." 

"Mother" — the  voice  of  the  girl  was  eager  and 
the  soft  cream  of  her  cheeks  was  flushed — "oh, 

mother,  if  Chell-Fen "  she  paused  and  the 

two  women  looked  into  each  other's  eyes  and 
without  another  word  walked  into  the  shop.  Fun 
watched  them  as  they  made  their  purchase  and 
saw  them,  with  the  precious  package,  mingle  with 
the  crowd  again,  thinking,  "Luck  to  you,  little 
maiden  with  the  eager  eyes;  poverty  has  its  com 
pensations  when  it  is  not  allied  with  suffering;  if 
the  little  girl  were  rich  she  would  not  be  able  to 
have  her  Chell-Fen,  perhaps,  but  some  other  se 
lected  for  her." 

Yes,  the  streets  were  become  his  favorite  stroll 
and  his  notebook  was  filled  with  jottings.  His 
keen  eyes  lost  no  single  point  and  his  brain  was 
busy  with  plans  for  help;  and  so  the  days  had 
passed  and  he  knew  that  within  a  few  hours,  at 


SUE    CHUG  157 

most,  he  should  see  the  man  he  hoped  to  be  able 
to  call  Father. 


CHAPTER   XVII 


(MESSAGE  had  come,  and  Fun  was 
walking  up  and  down  his  office,  one 
afternoon,  when  the  door  opened 
and,  roused  from  his  revery,  he 
turned  at  the  sound  and  saw  the 
tall,  stately  figure  of  the  man  his 
thoughts  had  been  busy  with.  With  a  quick  for 
ward  step  he  grasped  the  extended  hand  and 
looked  into  the  face  so  like  his  own. 

"Ah,  Doctor  Fun;  this  is  good,  a  welcome  and 
a  bright  fire.  I  am  cold  to  the  very  marrow  of 
old  bones.  No,  not  too  tired;  we  learn  to  save 
ourselves  as  we  go  on.  Thanks" — as  Fun  pushed 
forward  a  chair  into  the  light  and  warmth  of 
the  fire. 

"May  I,  shall  I,  order  yon  some  food?"  Fun 
asked.  His  voice  was  uneven,  and  his  eyes  shone, 
two  spots  burned  on  his  cheeks,  and  Dr.  Ah-Fing 
looked  curiously  at  him. 

"No,  Doctor!  I  am  not  ill,  only  glad,  very  glad, 
to  see  you.  My  patient  is  counting  the  hours  until 
your  arrival." 


SUE    CHUG  159 

The  older  man's  eyes  dwelt  intently  upon  him. 
"Yes?  Tell  me  of  him.  But  first  order  me  a 
bowl  of  strong  soup."  And  when  the  other  had 
gone  from  the  room  he  sat  looking  into  the  fire. 
He  had  been  struck  before  with  the  resemblance 
between  Fun  and  himself,  but  never  as  now,  and 
his  still  strong  white  teeth  bit  into  the  underlip  as 
he  thought  of  what  it  would  have  meant  to  him 
to  have  had  a  son  such  as  this  and,  with  a  sigh, 
he  turned  toward  him  as  he  re-entered,  carrying 
himself  the  tray  upon  which  was  the  bowl  of 
soup  and  the  plate  of  bread. 

"I  can  vouch  for  its  goodness,  Doctor,"  he  said, 
ubut  I  regret  to  have  nothing  else  to  offer  you 
here  that  you  would  care  for.  Later,  up  at  my 
quarters,  you  will  find  a  dinner  more  to  your 
liking,  perhaps." 

"I  am  an  old  campaigner,  Doctor,"  the  other 
replied,  and  after  a  sip  or  two,  "This  is 'good, 
indeed.  You  need  not  feel  obliged  to  apologize. 
And  now,  while  I  eat,  do  you  tell  me  all  of  this 
case  from  the  beginning.  But  first  I  will  tell  you 
that  this  man  and  I  were  once,  many  years  ago, 
dear  to  each  other,  or  do  you  know  that?" 

"Yes,  Choo-Dan  told  me  of  that." 

The  other  asked  no  further  question  and  Fun 
related  to  him  his  first  summons  and  all  of  the 
successive  steps  to  the  sending  of  the  telegram, 


160  SUE    CHUC 

related  only  the  physical  symptoms,  touched  not 
at  all  upon  their  talk  of  other  matters,  and  noth 
ing  that  Dr.  Ah-Fing  said  or  no  expression  of 
his  face  showed  that  he  noticed  the  purely  scientific 
and  technical  exposition  of  the  case. 

When  the  story  was  finished  he  rose  and  said, 
"And  now,  if  you  will  take  me,  I  am  ready  to  go 
to  him." 

"Are  you  not  too  fatigued?  Would  you  not 
better  de'fer  your  visit  until  the  morning?" 
Again  Fun's  voice  was  beyond  his  control  and 
carried  its  note  of  eagerness. 

Dr.  Ah-Fing  attributed  it  to  relief  at  the  advent 
of  a  man  of  greater  experience,  and  smiled  as  he 
answered : 

"No,  let  us  go  now.  Then  to-night  we  can  talk 
over  the  case.  From  what  you  tell  me,  I  should 
judge  that  you  think  Choo-Dan  a  very  sick  man, 
and  the  fact  of  his  having  broken  the  silence  of 
over  thirty  years  to  beg  me  to  come  to  him  proves 
to  me  that  he  is  a  very  sick  man." 

When  they  crossed  the  threshold  leading  from 
the  street  into  the  splendid  courtyard,  Fun  saw 
Dr.  Ah-Fing  glance  quickly  about  as  though  to 
judge  from  the  appearance  of  the  home-settings 
how  far  from  the  standard  they  had  possessed  in 
those  long  ago  days  this  old  friend  had  come. 

At  the  house  door,  which  was  opened  by  Choo- 


SUE    CHUC  161 

Dan's  body  servant,  for  a  moment  Di\  Ah-Fing's 
eyes  met  and  held  the  other's,  then  the  Doctor's 
face  softened  into  the  smile  that  made  his  clean- 
cut  severity  so  beautiful,  and  his  voice  with  the 
cordial  note  in  it  said: 

"Ah,  Len,  so  you  are  at  your  post  faithfully, 
as  of  old!" 

The  servant's  immobile  face  broke  into  a  mo 
mentary  ripple  of  expression  and  he  bowed  low 
as  he  answered: 

"Unto  death,  Master  Ah-Fing." 

At  the  door  of  the  sick  man's  chamber,  Fun  hes 
itated  a  moment. 

"Will  you  call  me  when — if  you  need  me,"  he 
said.  "I  will  wait  your  summons  in  this  room," 
pointing  across  the  corridor. 

Dr.  Ah-Fing  assented  gravely  and,  opening  the 
door,  went  within. 

A  half  hour  passed  and  Fun,  counting  the  min 
utes,  his  heart  beating  strongly,  paced  the  long 
room.  The  long-continued  strain  was  telling 
on  him  and  he  felt  that  he  must  pull  himself 
together  to  meet  fittingly  whatever  of  joy  or 
disappointment  the  moment  of  his  summons 
should  bring  him.  And,  thinking  to  divert  his 
mind  from  that  other  room  and  the  subject  upon 
which  its  inmates  were  talking,  he  walked  to  the 
window  and  looked  out. 


1 62  SUE    CHUG 

The  room  he  was  in  faced  a  small  courtyard, 
evidently  at  the  back  of  the  house,  and  in  the  early 
dusk  of  the  winter's  night  singularly  bright. 
Light  poured  into  it  from  the  windows  of  sev 
eral  rooms  on  the  ground  floor,  forming  splashes 
and  stains  on  the  clean-swept  tiles.  In  the  cor 
ners  were  piled  high  the  masses  of  snow  that  had 
but  recently  covered  the  pavement  from  the  storm 
of  the  previous  day.  The  great  tubs  and  jars 
of  shrubs  and  dwarfed  trees  swaddled  in  the  straw 
of  their  winter's  covering  were  of  odd  and  fanci 
ful  shapes,  their  grotesqueness  and  distortions  hid 
den  and  softened  by  the  snow  that  rounded  their 
outlines. 

Looking  down  and  across  from  his  window  in 
the  second  story,  Fun  could  see  directly  into  a 
large  room  that  was  evidently  the  women's  sitting 
room,  and  in  which  were  gathered  now  the  old 
mother,  the  wife  and  daughter,  and  several  other 
feminine  figures  whose  relationship  to  the  former 
he  did  not  know.  It  was  the  first  time  that  he 
had  seen  the  interior  of  a  Chinese  house,  whose 
master  was  a  man  of  wealth.  His  intercourse  had 
been  almost  entirely  confined  to  the  patients 
who  sought  him  at  his  office,  or  when  he  was 
called  to  attend  a  patient  in  his  own  home  it  had 
always  been  a  man  who  required  the  services,  and 
he  had,  in  the  case  of  its  being  one  of  the  well- 


SUE    CHUC  163 

to-do  or  wealthy  class,  seen  but  the  patient's  indi 
vidual  room.  So  now  he  noted  with  interest  the 
furnishings  and  arrangements. 

The  floor  was  covered  with  one  of  the  im 
mensely  thick  native  carpets  or  large  rugs,  along 
one  side  ran  the  Kang,  its  sides  covered  with  dec 
orated  tiles.  On  some  eight  feet  of  its  length 
were  cushions,  showing  it  to  be,  as  is  usual,  a 
reclining  place.  A  long,  square-cornered  table  of 
ironwood  was  directly  in  the  room's  center,  and 
on  it  a  varied  collection  of  articles:  work  boxes 
opened,  showing  their  contents  of  brightly  tinted 
silks  and  packages  of  silver  and  gold  threads;  a 
tea  outfit  in  what  appeared  to  be  Nankin  ware ;  a 
fire  box  with  tripod  and  corners,  outer  rim  and 
handles  of  wrought  copper ;  upon  the  tripod  rested 
a  kettle,  from  the  spout  of  which  issued  steam, 
and,  burning  dully  crimson  in  the  bed  of  feathery 
gray  ashes  beneath,  was  the  charcoal. 

A  large  lamp  with  painted  silk  shade  over  its 
globe  hung  from  the  ceiling  above  the  table. 
Drawn  up  to  the  side  facing  the  windows  were 
the  mother  and  wife  sipping  from  the  bowls  of 
tea  that  one  of  the  daughters  had  just  handed 
them  and  nibbling  at  the  waferlike  pink  and  col 
ored  cakes  from  the  dishes  before  them. 

Scattered  about  the  room  were  square,  rather 
high-seated  chairs,  carved,  inlaid,  with  silk-cush- 


1 64  SUE    CHUC 

ioned  seats  and  foot  rests.  Several  tall  chests  of 
drawers  were  against  the  wall  opposite  the  win 
dows  and  two  long  strips  of  satin  hung  upon  them, 
banner  fashion,  with  thick  ivory-ended  weight 
sticks  or  rollers.  A  bracket  lamp  attached  to  the 
wall  threw  its  light  upon  the  Kang  and  the  colors 
of  the  cushions  on  it  came  out  dully  in  some  spots, 
glitteringly  in  others,  where  dull  silk  or  bright 
tinsel  caught  the  gleams. 

A  very  tall,  completely  open  set  of  shelves 
showed  piles  upon  piles  of  the  silk  brocade  cov 
ered  books  that  Fun  knew  to  be  filled  with  tales, 
with  precepts,  with  hair-raising,  blood-curdling  ac 
counts  of  the  gods,  with  poetry,  and  with  pic 
tures.  Altogether  a  charmingly  homelike  room, 
although  so  absolutely  in  the  Eastern  taste.  And 
the  faces  of  the  three  women  directly  in  his  line 
of  vision  held  his  gaze.  In  no  land  that  he  had 
visited  had  he  seen  such  placid  faces,  faces  upon 
which  the  strain  and  stress  of  life  left  so  few 
tell-tale  marks;  was  it  a  lack  of  the  capacity  to 
feel?  Was  it  the  effect  of  the  centuries  upon  cen 
turies  of  control  that  had  given  to  them  this  gift 
of  calm  acceptance  of  Life  in  its  various  mani 
festations?  His  study  of  his  people  had  not  yet 
taught  him  the  answer. 

Suddenly  he  was  aware  of  the  length  of  time 
he  had  stood  there,  and  he  turned  away  from  the 


SUE    CHUC  165 

window  and  began  his  restless  pacing.  The  sound 
of  an  opening  door  arrested  his  attention,  and 
he  stopped,  the  blood  pounding  in  his  arteries.  A 
call — yes — it  was  for  him.  He  left  the  room 
and  crossed  the  corridor  where  the  door  of  that 
other  room  was  ajar,  tapped  lightly,  barely  waited 
for  the  answering  voices'  assent  to  his  entrance, 
and  pushing  open  the  door  stood  looking  in. 

The  sick  man  lay  back  on  his  pillows,  his  wax- 
enly  pallid  face  with  its  sunken,  deeply  shadowed 
eyes  masklike,  as  usual.  Only  the  eyes  seemed 
alive  and  they,  for  the  first  time  since  he  knew 
the  man,  were  peaceful;  gone  the  hunted  look, 
gone  the  feverish,  restless  glitter,  in  their  place 
only  a  great  peace. 

The  three  men  looked  at  each  other  in  silence 
for  a  long  moment.  Then  Dr.  Ah-Fing,  his 
voice  tremulous  but  glad,  said,  stretching  out  both 
hands : 

"We  will  have  many  years'  joy  to  make  up, 
Fun,  and  I  am  an  old  man.  We  cannot  afford 
to  miss  any  of  it,  my  son." 

Fun  took  the  outstretched  hands  and,  after  a 
long  look  into  the  face,  bowed  his  head  and  kissed 
the  hands  with  a  reverent  awe,  a  tenderness  and 
thankfulness  he  could  find  no  words  to  express. 


CHAPTER   XVIII 

HAT  night  father  and  son  sat  in 
Fun's  sitting  room  in  the  house  on 
the  hill,  and  talked.  Every  detail 
of  his  life,  its  shadows  as  well  as 
its  light  places,  Fun  laid  bare,  even 
to  the  daily  fight  he  was  making 
against  the  call  of  the  poppy  dreams.  The 
older  man,  as  he  listened  and  watched  closely 
the  man  he  now  knew  to  be  the  son  his  heart 
had  hungered  for  through  the  years,  felt  that 
heart  grow  light  as  the  story  went  on,  as  he  saw 
the  firmness,  the  strength,  the  utter  manliness  in 
the  best  sense  the  other  possessed,  and  when  at 
last  the  tale  was  finished  and  no  slightest  veil 
rested  between  the  two,  he  gave  a  great  sigh  of 
joy.  Here  was  the  soul-stuff  he  had  hoped  his 
boy  might  possess;  no  lurking  smallness,  no  mean 
ness — big,  big  in  every  way  was  this  boy  of  his — 
in  stature,  in  heart,  in  brain;  a  fitting  comrade 
during  the  time  left  to  him  to  enjoy  the  comrade 
ship,  a  fitting  captain  in  whose  hands  to  leave  the 
ship  of  his  lifework  when  he  must  go. 


SUE    CHUC  167 

Again  the  two  men  grasped  hands;  it  was  no 
ticeable  how  restrained  they  were  in  speech,  in 
manner,  in  the  light  of  their  new  knowledge  that 
yet  meant  so  much,  so  vitally  much  to  them  both. 
Each  felt  the  completest  sense  of  the  other's  full 
est  understanding,  sympathy,  love;  and,  being 
the  men  they  were,  and  so  alike,  little  in  mere 
words  was  needed. 

The  day  after,  during  tiffin,  Fun  said,  "I  have 
just  had  word  that  Madame  Jay-San  will  arrive 
to-night." 

"Jay-San !  to-night!"  exclaimed  the  other.  "No 
— but  I  should  say,  rather,  'of  course.7  Jay-San 
has  never  been  far  away  at  any  crisis  of  my  life 
yet.  She  has  a  veritable  instinct  for  time  and 
place."  Then,  with  a  twinkle  of  the  dark  eyes 
still  so  bright  behind  their  glasses 

"How  you  will  be  'bossed,'  as  we  used  to  say 
in  England,  my  boy!" 

Fun  laughed.  "And  how  I  shall  love  it,"  he 
said.  "Why,  father,"  he  hesitated  a  trifle  over  the 
new  form  of  address,  but  went  on  as  he  saw  the 
quick  response  to  it  flash  across  the  other's  face. 
"One  of  the  things  I  have  missed  most  in  my 
life  has  been  that  very  thing.  Oh,  I  admit  it  can 
be  carried  to  excess,  but  one  can  stand  a  good  deal 
of  it  when  one  has  been  as  lonely  as  I  have  always 
been.  The  feeling  that  some  one  cares  for  you, 


1 68  SUE    CHUC 

is  interested  in  you,  even  in  the  smallest  unimpor 
tant  things  of  your  life — yes,  I  can  stand  a  good 
deal  of  that." 

"Fortunate,  for  you'll  certainly  get  it,"  laughed 
the  other.  "What  time  will  Jay-San  arrive?" 

"The  messenger  said  before  night,  but  I  doubt 
it.  The  storm  of  two  days  ago  has  made  the 
road  almost  impassable  for  a  cart." 

"Yes,  but  not  for  a  good  horse  and  a  woman 
who  knows  how  to  ride,"  a  laughing  voice  an 
swered  from  the  doorway. 

Both  men  rose  from  their  chairs  and  hastened 
toward  her. 

"Here,  Ah-Fing,  unwind  me,  do;  I'm  wrapped 
up  like  a  cocoon,  and  Fun,  get  me  a  pair  of  slip 
pers  out  of  that  bag.  There" — as  at  last  she 
emerged  from  her  swaddlings,  her  handsome  face 
ruddy  from  the  cold  wind,  her  eyes  sparkling  like 
a  girl's. 

"Now,  you  two,"  she  said,  pointing  an  accus 
ing  finger  at  them,  "how  long  have  you  known?" 

Fun  gasped.  Dr.  Ah-Fing  looked  amused  and 
stirred. 

"Well,  not  long,  I  see.  However,  I'll  war 
rant  you  neither  of  you  thought  once  of  telegraph 
ing  me  the  glad  tidings — no,"  as  they  exchanged 
guilty  glances.  "I  suppose  you  never  gave  it  a 
thought.  Oh,  you  men!  And  there  I  might  be, 


SUE    CHUC  169 

I  suppose,  for  a  month  without  having  heard  a 
word  if  I  had  not  stirred  up  these  old  wits  of  mine 
and  put  several  pairs  of  twos  and  twos  together 
and  come  dashing  madly  down  here,  as  Docia 
would  say,  on  my  own  hook." 

"But,  Madame  Jay" — her  eyes  reproached  him 
— "Aunt  Jay-San,"  he  amended,  putting  his  arms 
about  her  and  looking  into  her  upturned  face, 
"how  did  you  know?  We  have  known  only  since 
last  evening." 

She  looked  from  one  to  the  other,  mischief  in 
her  eyes,  but  with  her  lips  tremulous.  "You  blind, 
blind  bats,"  she  said.  "Why,  I  suspected  it  the 
first  time  I  saw  you,  Fun;  and  I  was  certain  of  it, 
morally,  that  is,  when  I  heard  your  story." 

"And  you  said  nothing,"  her  brother  re 
proached. 

"Naturally,  being  a  woman  with  some  sense 
I  waited  to  have  proof.  But  tell  me,  how  did  you 
hear  it?  Yes,  I  knew  Choo-Dan  was  the  God  of 
the  Machine.  I  sensed  that  when  I  read  Fun's 
telegram  to  you,  and  the  rest  I  got  psychically." 

The  men  roared. 

"You  think  that  a  subject  for  merriment,  evi 
dently.  Very  well,  you  may  laugh,  we  can  afford 
to  let  you.  Now,  am  I  to  be  fed?" 

Fun  hurried  to  order  fresh  supplies  of  tea  and 
toast,  cutlet  and  compote,  while  Dr.  Ah-Fing  and 


i  yo  SUE    CHUG 

his  sister  seated  themselves  at  the  table.  There 
had  been  a  long,  long  hand  pressure  between 
them,  a  quick  exchange  of  tender  greeting,  then 
on  Fun's  return  to  the  room  all  tension  was  re 
laxed  and  they  talked  freely,  fully,  and  without 
emotion. 

"How  wtf-Chinese  we  all  are  in  some  things," 
Madame  Jay-San  said,  "and  how  utterly  like  in 
others.  Not  at  all  a  bad  admixture,  I  find,  in 
despite  of  all  the  wise  adages  anent  mixed  blood." 

They  lingered  long  over  the  table,  then  Fun 
tore  himself  away  and  went  to  the  hospital.  Dur 
ing  the  remainder  of  the  day  he  worked  steadily 
and  it  was  with  a  heart  as  light  as  a  boy's  that  he 
turned  homeward.  His  remarkably  developed 
ability  for  concentration  enabled  him  for  the  mo 
ment  to  lose  himself  completely  in  the  thing  he 
was  doing,  and  the  day  with  its  manifold  duties, 
its  necessity  for  decisions,  for  ordered,  systematic 
supervision  and  direction,  had  not  proved  too  try 
ing,  although  his  heart  carried  its  joy  and  his  sub 
conscious  mind  wove  dreams. 

Madame  Jay-San  called  to  him  from  the  bal 
cony  of  his  sitting  room : 

"A  letter  from  the  little  sister." 

"Go  in,  go  in,'  he  answered,  "this  air  is  like 
a  knife,"  and  he  ran  up  the  stairs  and  along  the 
hall,  and,  as  Madame  Jay-San  opened  the  door  to 


SUE    CHUG  171 

him,  gave  her  a  quick  boyish  hug  that  evidently 
delighted  her. 

"Well,  thanks  be,"  she  said,  as  she  put  up  her 
hand  to  her  heavy  hair  instinctively,  as  women  do, 
"at  long  last  I'm  to  be  given  some  demonstration 
of  affection.  I  was  so  afraid  you  might  think  it 
proper  and  fitting  to  be  grown  up  and  formal." 

"Not  I,"  laughed  Fun;  "I  wanted  to  hug  you 
the  first  time  I  saw  you,  and,  now  I've  the  right, 
you  can  be  prepared  for  all  the  demonstration  you 
will  stand.  No  one  expects  a  man  who  has  been 
perishing  of  hunger  and  thirst  to  be  temperate 
when  food  is  given  him. 

"Where  is  Doctor — where  is  my  father?"  he 
asked,  looking  about. 

"He  is  writing  in  my  sitting  room,  but  will  be 
in  presently." 

"I'll  just  get  you  to  make  tea  while  I  run 
through  Sue's  letter,  Aunt  Jay." 

Madame  Jay  watched  him  covertly  as  she  bus 
ied  herself  with  the  tea-making,  saw  his  face 
change  and  noted  the  growing  excitement  in  his 
manner  as  he  turned  the  last  page  and  came  to  the 
bottom.  He  drew  a  long  breath  and  sat  back  in 
his  chair  as  though  his  tension  were  relaxed. 

"What  a  wonderful  thing  is  life;  what  a  won 
derful  thing!"  then  he  looked  up  and  caught  her 
eyes  upon  him.  "When  we've  had  our  tea,  I'll 


1 72  SUE    CHUC 

read  this  to  you,"  tapping  the  pages  of  the  letter. 
Then  he  rearranged  the  sheets  and  placed  it  on 
the  tea-poy  by  his  chair.  As  the  Doctor  entered 
the  room,  Madame  Jay-San's  eyes  dimmed  as  she 
saw  the  expression  on  both  faces. 

During  tea  they  talked  of  the  work,  of  Dr. 
Ray's  return  the  following  year,  and  Dr.  Ah-Fing 
said: 

"Fun,  Dr.  Ray  can  get  another  to  take  your 
place  here,  but  I  cannot  get  what  I  want  up  north 
— will  you  come  up  to  me  ?  What  I  need  is  a  sec 
ond  self — one  does  not  find  that  a  something  to 
be  obtained  for  dollars,  as  a  rule?  The  work  is 
a  big  one,  a  necessary  one.  I  cannot,  in  the  na 
ture  of  things,  give  all  my  time  to  it,  and  if  you 
will  come  to  me  you  shall  be  its  virtual  head,  I 
only  the  one  to  turn  to  when  you  need  my  longer 
and  larger  experience  as  help.  Will  you,  my 
boy?" 

"Will  I,  father?"  the  tone  was  sufficient. 

"And  now,  if  you  men  will  drop  shop  for  a 
while,  I'll  be  glad.  Fun,  you  promised  to  read 
me  Sue's  letter." 


CHAPTER  XIX 


jUN  took  up  the  pages  and  began: 

"New  York. 

"Oh,  Fun  dear,  may  I  be  common 
place  and  indulge  in  some  good  old 
platitudes?  Yes? — well,  what  a 
wonderful  thing  life  is,  for  one; 
and  is  it  not  true,  how  the  bolt  from  the  clear  sky 
is  the  one  that  strikes,  etc.,  etc.,  ad  lib.  ?  I  won't 
inflict  any  more  on  you,  although  I  love  the  dear 
old  homely  things — who  needs  or  wants  flights  of 
fancy  at  certain  times?  I,  for  one,  need  just 
those  old  stupid  weights-to-earth  that  they  give 
me. 

"I  believe  I  finished  my  last  letter  with  a  P.  S. 
telling  you  I  had  got  the  news  of  poor  Eleanor's 
accident  and  that  on  the  next  train  I  was  going 
out  to  see  what  could  be  done  by  me  in  the  way 
of  help  or  comfort.  I  did  go,  and  took  a  cab  to 
the  big  house,  where  I  found  that  the  mother's 
dead  body  had  been  brought,  but  that  Eleanor, 
too  injured  to  be  sent  home,  was  at  the  house  be 
fore  which  the  accident  occurred,  that  her  father 


I74  SUE    CHUC 

was  with  her,  and  several  physicians,  and  that 
the  great  Dr.  Z.  was  expected  by  the  next  train; 
so  I  jumped  into  the  cab  again,  which  I'd  kept  un 
til  I  knew  about  things,  and  the  servant  gave  the 
driver  the  directions. 

"We  drove  along  past  'Cosy  Corner'  and 
stopped — where  do  you  think?  At  old  Tonkey- 
Lo's!  I  caught  sight  of  several  people  through 
the  glass  of  the  window  in  the  sitting  room  and  I 
stole  around  to  the  back  door,  hoping  to  get 
speech  with  Tonkey-Lo  or  Bub.  The  latter  I 
found  out  in  the  woodshed,  his  head  buried  in 
the  old  garden  sack  Tonkey-Lo  wears  when  he 
fusses  about  on  cool  days,  and  his  shoulders  shak 
ing.  Went  up  to  him  and  called  him,  and  he 
turned  and  fairly  threw  himself  into  my  arms  and 
sobbed  so  I  was  frightened  'most  out  of  my  wits, 
for,  although  he  is  a  sensitive  little  fellow,  had 
not  thought  him  so  nervously  organized.  And 
just  when  I,  at  my  wits'  end,  was  going  to  call 
for  help,  for  I  thought  the  child  would  have  con 
vulsions,  out  came  Tonkey-Lo. 

"Have  been  trying  to  formulate  the  impression 
I  got  from  the  first  sight  of  his  face  that  day. 
Ordinarily  it  is  like  most  Chinese  faces:  rather 
masklike,  but  then  it  was  as  though  a  light  burned 
behind  one  of  the  yellowish  paper  panels  of  a 
lantern,  and  his  eyes — well,  it  seems  absurd  to  say 


SUE    CHUC  175 

that  the  eyes  of  an  ugly  old  Chinaman  were  beau 
tiful,  filled  with  a  sort  of  satisfied,  beatified  look 
and  soft  as  a  girl's,  but  they  were  all  that. 

"After  he  had  quieted  Bub,  I  asked  him  to  tell 
me  about  the  accident,  which  he  did,  having  seen 
it  all,  but  too  far  away  to  help,  and  he  said  that 
Eleanor  was  not  expected  to  live  through  the  day. 
I  was  crying  almost  as  hard  as  Bub  by  this  time, 
and  Tonkey-Lo  patted  me  and  said  a  lot  of  things 
about  being  brave  and  ready,  which  he  repeated 
often.  Thought  it  a  part  of  the  excitement  under 
which  he  was  palpably  laboring  and  submitted  to 
being  made  to  drink  a  huge  bowl  of  some  awful 
herb  stuff,  which  I  must  admit  braced  me  up,  and 
then  out  into  the  kitchen,  where  we  then  were, 
came  Eleanor's  father. 

"Never  have  I  seen  such  a  change  in  any  one 
in  so  short  a  time.  Before  when  I  met  him  he  was 
fat,  complacent,  a  trifle  coarse  looking  in  a  hand 
some  way,  and  his  thick  black  hair  was  as  black 
as  could  be;  that  afternoon  he  was  like  a  man 
whose  vitality  has  been  utterly  sapped — his  skin 
was  actually  flabby,  and  under  his  eyes  were  huge 
puffy  bags  and  all  through  his  hair  were  white 
threads.  I'll  never  again  laugh  at  the  expression, 
'hair  turning  white  in  a  night.1 

"Tonkey-Lo  met  him  at  the  door  and  almost  led 
him  to  a  chair,  treating  him  as  he  would  Bub  or 


176  SUE    CHUC 

one  of  us,  yet  with  a  certain  difference  that  I  could 
not  explain  but  felt. 

"I  did  not  know  what  to  do  or  say.  For  the 
first  time  in  my  life  I  was  tongue-tied;  everything 
usual  seemed  so  banal,  so  utterly  silly  in  the  face 
of  this  big  tragic  thing  that  had  occurred,  so  I 
cried  a  little  more,  which,  it  appears,  was  the  best 
thing  I  could  have  done,  for  it  roused  him  from 
his  thoughts  and  for  the  moment  took  him  out  of 
himself. 

"  Tes,  yes,  it's  little  Sue,  my  girl's  friend,'  he 
said;  'you  can  cry,  child,  can't  you?  I  wish  I 
could.'  At  that  I  made  a  perfect  mop  of  myself, 
for  it  did  seem  so  terrific  to  see  that  great  man 
so  simple  and  so  hurt,  that's  the  thought  that  came 
to  me,  the  feeling  of  his  'hurtness.' 

"Presently,  as  though  for  relief,  he  told  me  of 
the  accident  and  at  the  finish  he  sat  quiet  for  a 
moment,  then  his  face  flushed  until  I  thought  he 
would  have  an  apoplectic  fit  and  he  brought  his 
fist  down  on  the  table  like  a  sledge-hammer,  say 
ing: 

"  'And  this  is  to  be  the  end  of  my  toiling,  my 
planning,  my  hopes;  no  wife,  no  child,  only  the 
money — the  damned,  blackened,  filthy  money.  I'll 
not  have  it,  I'll  not,  I'll  not,1  then  he  swayed  and 
Tonkey-Lo  caught  him. 

"Maybe  you  don't  think  I  was  properly  scared, 


SUE    CHUC  177 

but  my  training  got  the  better  of  my  fright,  and 
I  rushed  over  and  took  off  his  collar,  and  while 
Tonkey-Lo  held  him  I  massaged  the  back  of  his 
neck  until  that  awful  color  got  better  and  he  came 
out  of  whatever  it  was  he  had  gone  into,  and  I 
had  his  poor  head  on  my  shoulder  when  he  opened 
his  eyes  and  looked  straight  into  mine.  Tonkey- 
Lo  had  taken  off  his  shoes  and  was  rubbing  his 
feet.  I  thought  he  never  would  take  his  eyes  off 
mine,  and  I  could  no  more  have  turned  mine  away 
than  I  could  have  flown. 

"At  last  Tonkey-Lo  looked  up  and  saw  us,  and 
I  was  conscious  that  he  was  rising  and  leaning 
near  us;  he  said  something  in  Chinese  that  I  did 
not  understand,  but  that  the  sick  man  did,  for 
he  gasped  and  sat  up  straight  and  I  got  my  glance 
back  into  my  own  keeping  again,  with  the  biggest 
sense  of  relief. 

"Just  then  one  of  the  doctors  came  to  the  door, 
looked  at  us  all,  and  saw  how  things  were  and 
took  us  all  in  hand;  made  the  sick  man  lie  down 
on  the  long  wooden  bench  that  seems  Tonkey-Lo's 
special  property,  and  with  only  a  folded  quilt 
under  him,  and  asked  me  if  I  was  a  nurse,  evi 
dently  thinking  me  the  one  that  had  been  sent  for. 
I  said  yes,  and  he  ordered  me  to  go  in  to  the  sick 
girl,  so  I  slipped  into  the  frock  I  had  brought  and, 
with  my  heart  in  my  mouth,  went  in.  I'm  not  go- 


1 78  SUE    CHUC 

ing  to  tell  you  of  all  that — it's  too  fresh  yet  for 
me  to  talk  of. 

uDr.  Z.  came  that  night,  stayed  all  night,  de 
cided  upon  an  operation  as  the  one  and  last,  al 
though  most  doubtful  chance.  At  seven  the  next 
morning  it  was  performed,  and — well,  poor  Elea 
nor  never  came  out  from  under  the  anaesthetic. 
Her  father  had  pulled  himself  together  and  went 
through  the  whole  thing — there  simply  was  no 
keeping  him  out  of  the  room.  And  when  we 
knew  the  end  had  come  I  saw  the  bitterest  smile 
on  his  face — poor  old  fellow,  all  his  millions  will 
not  be  any  comfort,  for  he  idolized  his  daughter. 

"Tonkey-Lo  was  a  puzzle  to  me  during  the  next 
few  days.  He  was  up  at  the  great  house  all  the 
time,  only  rushing  back  to  see  if  Bub  was  all  right, 
and  he  would  cook  up  all  kinds  of  food  for  us, 
for  I  stayed  on,  feeling  for  some  reason  that  I 
could  not  leave,  although  in  reality  my  friendship 
with  Eleanor  had  been  anything  but  an  intimacy. 

"The  burial  took  place  on  the  third  day  after 
Eleanor's  death,  the  double  interment  making  it 
seem  so  much  more  than  just  a  double  bereave 
ment.  I  wonder  why  that  is,  Fun.  I've  noticed 
it  before.  A  number  of  Eleanor's  old  school 
friends  came,  as  did  Miss  Elliot  and  three  others 
of  the  teachers. 

"After  it  was  all  over  I  crept  home  to  Bub ;  felt 


SUE    CHUC  179 

I  needed  to  see  all  of  the  boys  and  get  'bucked 
up,'  as  Casey  calls  it.  It  being  Saturday,  they 
were  all  at  home,  and  I  was  comforted  and  made 
much  of.  We  got  supper,  for  Tonkey-Lo  was 
away  yet,  and  sat  around  the  fireplace  talking 
quietly  when  Tonkey-Lo  came  in.  Bub  flew  to 
him  and  hung  on  as  though  Tonkey-Lo  had  been 
all  but  lost  to  him,  and  Tonkey-Lo  patted  his  curls 
and  settled  his  tie,  looked  at  his  face,  and  was, 
as  always,  dear  to  him.  Was  rather  taciturn  and 
went  out  to  the  kitchen  soon,  where  we  heard  him 
stirring  about. 

"The  boys  had  decided  it  was  too  cold  and 
stormy  to  let  me  go  home,  so  they  made  me  a  bed 
on  the  big  sofa  in  the  sitting  room,  and  after  I'd 
had  a  piping  hot  bath  in  the  woodshed — that's 
the  bath  room — I  snuggled  down  among  the  cov 
ers  and  went  fast  asleep. 

"In  the  morning  slept  until  seven  and  found  the 
boys  had  made  a  roaring  fire  for  me  to  dress  by 
and  brought  in  a  zinc  tub  of  cold  water  for  my 
bath.  Then  when  I'd  dressed  we  all  had  break 
fast,  and  things  seemed  more  cheerful,  only  I 
could  not  get  out  of  my  mind  that  poor  man's 
voice  as  he  said  'Only  the  money.'  Tonkey-Lo 
did  not  leave  the  house  that  morning,  was  busy 
straightening  everything  up,  and  I  noticed  he 
kept  going  to  the  window  often.  Finally,  after 


i8o  SUE    CHUC 

everything  was  in  spick  and  span  order,  he  disap 
peared  into  the  woodshed  and  Bub  said  he  was 
taking  his  bath.  In  an  hour  he  appeared  again 
and  we  all  held  our  breaths,  he  was  in  his  very  best 
new  year's  clothes,  but  brand  new  ones,  from  the 
button  on  the  top  of  his  skull  cap  to  the  shoes  on 
his  immaculate  stockinged  feet,  and  his  dear  old 
kind  face  fairly  shone  with  scrubbing. 

"  *I  think  I  go  to  big  house,'  was  all  he  said, 
and  out  he  went,  but  he  had  not  got  to  the  gate 
when  a  brougham  stopped,  and  I  saw  Eleanor's 
father's  face  through  the  window.  The  groom 
jumped  down  and  opened  the  door  and  Tonkey- 
Lo  got  in.  All  of  us  had  been  looking  from  our 
front  window  and  we  just  stayed  stupidly  watch 
ing  until  the  carriage  drove  away.  Then  Casey 
whistled  and  the  others  all  began  talking  at  once. 

"  'Say,  fellers,  what's  it  mean,  anyhow?  Think 
the  old  chap  is  going  to  try  to  get  Tonkey-Lo  to 
go  and  live  with  him?' 

"  'Tonkey-Lo  won't  go  away  from  us,'  said 
Bub. 

"'No?  What  makes  you  think  so?  We  don't 
do  much  for  him,  can't,  worse  luck.  I  say,  fel 
lers,  what  in  time  would  we  do  if  he  should  go, 
with  Bub  only  quarter  grown,  and  the  farm  and 
all  this?'  Dismay  followed,  but  Bub  said: 

"  'No,  he  won't  go — it's  only  he's  gone  to  com- 


SUE    CHUG  181 

fort  the  poor  rich  old  fellow.'  I  think  L  smiled, 
but  the  boys  were  quite  serious,  as  though  the  vis 
its  of  a  poor  old  Chinaman  to  a  rich  Occidental 
were  quite  in  the  order  of  things. 

"  'Yes,  when  they  was' — 'were'  corrected  Casey 
severely — 'were'  amended  Bub,  'young  men  they 
both  lived  in  China  and  Tonkey-Lo  was  the  com- 
perdor ' 

'  'Comprador,'  I  corrected. 

"  'Yes,  that's  it.' 

"  'What's  that?' 

"I  explained  how  responsible  a  place  it  was 
and  all  of  the  boys  opened  their  eyes. 

"'Whew!'  whistled  Casey.  'That's  going 
some !  Always  did  think  old  Tonkey-Lo  was  sort 
of  higher  up  than  he  seemed.  How'd  you  know, 
Bub.?' 

"  'Tonkey-Lo  told  me.' 

"'Umph!'  Casey  eyed  Bub  speculatively,  and 
Bub  went  on  to  tell  us  how  one  time,  when  there 
was  some  big  trouble,  he  did  not  know  of  what 
kind,  Eleanor's  father  saved  Tonkey-Lo's  'face,' 
and  after  that  they  were,  as  Bub  put  it,  'thicker'n 
thieves,'  for  which  rendering  Casey  frowned  upon 
him  and  amended  it  to  'great  friends.'  Oh,  Fun, 
how  you  would  love  these  boys ! 

"We  talked  all  day,  at  intervals,  over  the  situa 
tion,  and  got  no  further  toward  a  solution,  and  I 


1 82  SUE    CHUC 

had  to  leave  on  the  four  train,  so,  it  being  a  good 
cold,  clear  day,  we  walked  to  the  village  and  the 
boys  saw  me  on  the  train,  Casey  buying  my 
ticket  and  refusing  to  be  reimbursed.  I  caught 
a  glimpse  of  them  all  lined  up  along  the  platform 
with  their  caps  off  as  the  train  pulled  out. 

"Fun,  I  couldn't  get  that  poor  man  out  of  my 
mind — what  was  he  going  to  do  ?  As  far  as  I  could 
see  or  hear,  every  one  of  his  plans  and  hopes  cen 
tered  about  Eleanor.  Goodness,  but  it's  awful  to 
put  all  of  the  eggs  of  one's  interest,  affection,  and 
possibilities  for  joy  into  one  basket;  from  now 
on,  Fun,  I'm  going  to  take  warning  and  diversify 
my  interests,  loves,  and  joys. 

"Three  days  went  by  and  no  word  from  the 
boys.  Was  going  to  the  lectures  as  usual  and 
working  overtime  at  home,  when  about  six  o'clock 
on  the  third  day  there  came  a  ring  at  the  bell  and 
I  flew  to  open  the  door,  thinking  it  Phoebe  Bren- 
ning,  whom  we  were  expecting  to  supper,  and 
ushered  in — Mr.  Morton,  Eleanor's  father,  and 
Tonkey-Lo.  And  now,  dear,  catch  your  breath, 
you  will  need  all  of  it. 

"I  cannot  remember  the  beginning  of  things 
because  what  followed  was  so  wonderful;  but  it 
seems  that  twenty-five  years  ago  Mr.  Morton  was 
in  China  in  business,  and  while  there  met  a  lovely 
half-caste  girl  whom  he  fell  in  love  with  and 


SUE    CHUC  183 

wanted  to  marry,  but  his  friends  persuaded  him 
not  to,  telling  him  that  if  he  did  his  future  was 
ruined  and  all  that.  They  made  him  so  uncom 
fortable  that  he  decided  to  say  nothing  further  to 
them,  but  just  quietly  marry  her  anyway,  which  he 
did  during  a  trip  to  Shanghai,  getting  some  mis 
sionary,  an  old  friend  of  his,  to  perform  the  cere 
mony.  To  avoid  talk,  he  left  her  to  live  with  an 
old  sister  and  only  visited  her  occasionally,  think 
ing  after  a  year  or  two  more  to  take  her  home 
to  America.  Then  a  baby  was  born,  then  came 
the  Great  Plague  and  the  wife  died,  and,  as  he 
supposed,  the  little  one,  too.  He  was  told  so  after 
his  recovery,  for  he,  too,  had  the  plague  and  only 
barely  got  through,  the  wife's  sister  nursing  him 
back  to  health. 

4 'He  was  so  broken  in  health  and  spirits  that 
he  decided  to  leave  China  for  good  and  all,  im 
mediately  his  business  was  wound  up,  which  he 
did.  Now  conies  in  the  wonderful  part,  Fun,  dear 
— the  woman  who  nursed  him,  his  wife's  sister, 
was — Mai-den!  The  child  which  did  not  die — 
is  I.  This  won't  come  as  a  shock  to  you,  for  you 
remember  when  you  wrote  me  to  make  my  choice, 
if  I  should  or  should  not  learn  from  you  the  facts 
of  my  parentage,  you  knew  most  of  it,  possibly  all. 

"And  Fun,  dear  Fun,  it  won't  make  any  differ 
ence  in  our  plans,  it  just  must  not.  What  do  I 


1 84  SUE    CHUC 

care  for  being  Miss  Morton?  I'm  Sue  Chuc,  and 
Sue  Chuc  will  I  stay;  that  I  have  firmly  made  up 
my  mind  to,  but  please,  dear,  do  write  me  what  to 
say  to  this  new  father  of  mine.  He  wants  me  to 
come  and  be  the  daughter  of  his  house;  he  wants 
to  tell  all  the  world  of  this  old  romance  of  his 
and  prove  that  it  is  my  right  to  come  to  his  house 
as  his  daughter  and  its  mistress.  And  Fun,  oh, 
dear  Fun,  I  want  only  this,  to  be  in  China  with 
you,  busy  in  the  work  we  have  planned.  What  do 
I  care  about  the  money  or  position  if  to  get  it  I 
must  give  up  our  dream  and  you?  No,  I  cannot 
and  I  will  not.  I  have  told  him  so  as  plainly  as  I 
could;  showed  him  my  heart,  but  he  won't  under 
stand;  he  just  refuses  to,  and  Tonkey-Lo  said 
something  to  me  yesterday  that  made  my  heart  as 
heavy  as  lead  and  as  light  as  a  bit  of  floss  silk. 
"Oh,  Fun,  what  shall  I  say  to  Mr.  Morton? 

"Your 
"SUE." 


A  \ 


CHAPTER  XX 

ADAME  JAY-SAN  and  her  broth 
er  had  exchanged  glances  often, 
as  the  long  letter  was  read,  and 
both  noted  the  quiver  in  Fun's 
voice  as  he  read  the  last  of  it.  The 
silence  that  ensued  lasted  an  appre 
ciable  time,  and  was  broken  by  Dr.  Fing. 

"The  poor  lonely  man — the  poor  lonely  man." 
Madame  Jay-San  said,  her  fine  eyes  soft: 
uThat  blessed  torn-to-bits  girl,  how  she  is  suf 
fering." 

Fun  looked  from  one  to  the  other  and  was  still. 
"What  do  you  think  will  be  the  outcome,  Fun?" 
asked  Dr.  Ah-Fing. 

"I  do  not  at  all  know.  That  she  is  quite  sin 
cere  in  not  wanting  it  to  make  any  difference  in 
our  plans,  I  know,  but  in  the  very  nature  of  things 
it  must;  she  is  his  legitimate  child,  he  a  man  of 
enormous  wealth  and  a  lonely  man.  I  know  her 
tender  heart,  and  I  know  how  that  loneliness  will 
make  its  certain  appeal.  The  money  won't  count; 
in  fact,  I  think  that  were  he  a  poor  man  she  might 


1 86  SUE    CHUC 

the  more  readily  go  to  him,  sacrificing  her  own 
desires  to  his." 

Madame  Jay  nodded,  "Yes,  that  is  quite  what 
I  thought  of  her.  How  I  should  love  to  have 
had  a  daughter  like  her,  or  a  niece,"  she  added, 
with  a  quick  glance  at  Fun,  who  caught  it  and 
flushed,  hesitated  a  second,  then  said: 

"Aunt  Jay,  if  Sue  would  have  had  me,  I  had 
decided  to  marry  her.  Now — well,  that  damnable 
money  will  make  that  a  dream;  I  could  not  ask 
her." 

"And  why  not,  pray?"  and  without  waiting  for 
an  answer  Madame  Jay-San  continued,  her  eyes 
very  largely  opened  and  bright,  two  spots  of  red 
on  her  smooth  cheeks.  "Do  you  mean  to  tell  me, 
Fun,  that  you  do  not  know  the  girl  loves  you — 
why  it  is  patent  in  every  line  of  her  letters  and 
between  the  lines.  The  'brother  and  sister1  play 
answered  its  purpose  while  it  was  needed,  but 
surely  you  have  been  laboring  under  no  delusion 
that  it  had  not  finished  its  work." 

"On  my  own  part,  no;  but  I  have  not  seen  that 
which  you  seem  to  think  exists,  Aunt  Jay." 

"Bless  the  boy!"  Madame  Jay  was  frankly  im 
patient  at  what  she  deemed  the  usual  masculine 
stupidity,  and  Dr.  Ah-Fing  bit  his  lip  to  hide  the 
smile  that  would  come. 

"Now,  don't  do  that,  Fing;  it's  far  more  ag- 


SUE    CHUC  187 

gravating  than  an  open  smile,  you  know,"  she  said, 
and  her  brother  laughed  outright.  His  sister's 
quickness  was  a  nevef-ending  source  of  amusement 
to  him. 

"Anyway,"  she  continued,  "what  is  there  to 
laugh  at.  You  men  are  stupid  and  we  women 
know  it — even  the  cleverest  of  you  men  and  the 
silliest  of  us  women — and  it  strikes  me  that  you 
might  use  your  brain  a  little  on  this  problem  of 
Fun's." 

The  Doctor  laughed  again  and  Fun  joined  him; 
then,  seeing  the  shadow  that  crossed  the  kind  face 
of  the  woman,  he  rose  and  went  over  to  his  aunt 
and,  stooping  over,  kissed  her  lightly  on  the  cheek, 
and  said: 

"Aunt  Jay,  I  for  one  admit  my  'worm-of-the- 
dust'-ness,  and  will  be  so  glad  to  be  given  sugges 
tions.  I  do  want  Sue — I  have,  I  think,  for  a 
very  long  time,  only  I  was  obsessed  by  an  old 
dream  and  did  not  know  the  fact.  Now  what  shall 
I  do  to  get  her,  to  avoid  the  dollars  and  keep 
friends  with  myself  about  robbing  that  poor  man 
of  kerf 

"The  poor  man  has,  of  course,  my  sympathy, 
but  he  lived  very  well  through  a  great  many  years 
without  her.  Yes,  I  know  it  was  not  his  fault," 
as  she  noted  Fun's  expression,  "but  it's  a  fact, 
nevertheless,  so  I  cannot  be  too  sorry  for  him — be- 


1 88  SUE    CHUC 

sides,  he  has  so  much  else." 

"Not  now,  you  know,  Aunt  Jay." 

"No,  you're  right,  I  was  losing  sight  of  that 
point,  but  even  conceding  it,  let  him  make  conces 


sions." 


Fun  smiled  this  time. 

"As,  for  instance,"  suggested  Dr.  Ah-Fing. 

"Let  him  enjoy  the  dear's  society  as  much  as 
he  can  during  the  two  years  yet  before  her  at 
college,  then,  with  a  good  grace,  give  her  up  to 
Fun,  being  satisfied  with,  say,  a  yearly  visit  from 
or  to  her.  Or,  if  he  is  determined  to  be  near 
her,  come  and  live  in  Shanghai;  there  are  not 
many  more  interesting  places  to  be  found,  and 
it's  halfway  to  almost  any  place.  He  might  have 
a  charming  home  out  Jessfield  way  or  the  Bub 
bling  Well  Road,  or  even  beyond,  if  he  wanted 
much  ground,  and  he  could  go  in  for  collecting 
lacquer  and  old  embroideries  during  the  time  he 
spent  there,  and  Sue  and  the  children  could  run 
down  from  Peking  often,  and  he  up  to  us." 

Here  Dr.  Ah-Fing  and  Fun  went  off  into  gales 
of  laughter  and  Madame  Jay-San,  after  looking 
at  them  in  surprise  a  moment,  joined  them.  When 
she  could  speak,  she  said — a  note  of  self-derision 
in  her  voice: 

"YouVe  a  perfect  right  to  laugh  this  time.  I 
must  be  getting  old.  I  had  in  my  mind  already 


SUE    CHUG  189 

cradled  and  spanked,  loved,  and  was  in  process 
of  bringing  up  at  least  five  great-nieces  and  neph 
ews;  don't  at  all  feel  certain  I  had  not  decided 
upon  their  dispositions  and  the  color  of  their  eyes. 
Yes,  I'm  an  old  fool — I'm  going  out  for  some 
fresh  air.  You  two  superior  beings  can  talk  things 
over  and  let  me  know  what  you  have  decided  upon 
my  return." 

"Oh,  Aunt  Jay,  Doctor  Conrad  returns  to-night, 
you  know,"  Fun  called  after  her. 

"Does  he?    Good!     There's  a  man  for  you!" 

Dr.  Ah-Fing  got  up  and  walked  back  and  forth 
in  the  big  room.  "Jay-San's  not  altogether  wrong, 
Fun,"  he  said;  "that  plan  might  work.  At  least 
it's  worth  trying.  Possibly  rather  than  give  us 
Sue  entirely  or  make  her  unhappy,  the  father 
might  consent  to  some  such  plan,  with  modifica 
tions  or  additions.  If  he  once  lived  out  here  any 
length  of  time,  the  chances  are  he  likes  it  and 
would  find  it  possible.  At  any  rate,  as  Jay-San 
says,  Shanghai  is  about  midway  between  most 
places  worth  while." 

Fun  shook  his  head.  "Father,  you  do  not  real 
ize  the  hold  on  a  man  his  interests  and  occupa 
tions  of  half  a  lifetime  have,  and  Mr.  Morton  is 
still  a  comparatively  young  man,  not  over  fifty, 
I  think,  with  a  multiplicity  of  moneyed  interests. 


1 9o  SUE    CHUC 

No,  a  man  could  not  give  up  that  kind  of  activity 
at  his  age." 

"What  will  you  do,  then?"  asked  Dr.  Ah-Fing, 
an  anxious  tone  discernible  in  his  voice. 

"I  will  write  to  him  and  put  the  case,  my  case, 
before  him;  ask  him  to  let  Sue,  after,  say,  two 
years  of  living  as  his  daughter,  with  all  that  that 
means,  choose  for  herself.  Of  course  she  is  le 
gally  entitled  to,  now,  for  that  matter,  but  I 
should  want  her  to  know  her  mind  thoroughly  and 
have  a  point  of  comparison.  If  he  will  do  that, 
leave  her  to  decide  for  herself  absolutely,  I  in 
return  will  promise  to  say  nothing  to  her  during 
that  time  of  my  love  for  her  and  desire  to  marry 
her,  and  I  will  make  it  clear,  oh,  very  clear,  to 
him  that  I  will  not  accept  any  dowry  with  Sue. 
If  she  loves  me  more  than  the  things  his  money 
can  buy  for  her,  she  will  want  to  share  my  life, 
no  matter  what  it  is." 

Dr.  Ah-Fing  started  to  speak,  thought  better 
of  it,  and  continued  his  walking. 

Fun  continued:  "I  will  write  to  Sue  as  I  al 
ways  have,  fully,  freely  about  everything  but  my 
love  for  her,  during  that  time.  I  shall  show  her 
that  her  place  as  my  helper  is  ready,  when  she 
elects  to  fill  it,  but  shall  not  say  that  it  is  to  be 
filled  except  as  we  had  planned,  the  big  brother, 
the  small  sister.  I  think,  father,  I  will  write  the 


SUE    CHUC  191 

letter  to  Mr.  Morton  now — it  may  catch  the 
Gaelic  on  the  tenth." 

"Fun,  just  a  moment:  some  day,  my  boy,  I 
will  tell  you  of  the  hour  Choo-Dan  and  I  spent 
on  the  day  you  brought  us  together  after  those 
years;  yes,  I  want  you  to  know,  you  have  the 
right  to  and  I  appreciate  your  delicacy  in  refrain 
ing  from  questioning  me." 

The  two  men  exchanged  the  long  look  that  was 
becoming  habitual  with  them  since  the  knowledge 
of  their  relationship  had  come  to  them.  There 
had  been  almost  no  demonstration,  few  words,  but 
when  their  glances  met  there  was  a  mutual  ex 
change  of  thankfulness  and  affection  that  was 
growing  in  strength  as  the  days  passed,  and  as 
they  in  the  close  life  discovered  how  at  one  they 
were  in  all  questions. 

Dr.  Conrad  stopped  in  down  at  the  hospital 
on  his  return,  needing  the  use  of  the  laboratary 
for  some  work  he  had  to  do,  and  it  was  there 
that  Madame  Jay-San  found  him  when,  after  her 
brisk  walk,  she  stopped  in  to  see  one  of  the  in 
ternes  in  regard  to  a  nurse  she  had  asked  them 
to  send  her. 

"Oh,  Madame  Jay-San,  this  is  luck!  Can't 
shake  hands  until  IVe  washed  up  a  bit;  be  back 
in  a  minute,"  were  the  words  of  greeting  Dr.  Con- 


192  SUE    CHUC 

tad  flung  over  his  shoulder  as  he  sped  along  the 
corridor.  And  after  she  had  had  a  talk  with  the 
interne,  seen  the  nurse,  and  made  arrangements 
for  her  going  north  the  following  day,  she  went 
to  Fun's  officet  where  she  found  the  big  man  in 
front  of  the  fire. 

They  were  old  friends,  these  two;  had  weath 
ered  some  trying  times  together;  had  from  the 
first  been  congenial  and  found  innumerable  meet 
ing  points  in  convictions,  tastes,  and  desires. 
"Come  and  make  my  tea  for  me,  dear  Madame," 
Marshall  begged,  "and  tell  me  all  about  the 
blessed  discovery.  I  got  your  note,  for  which 
many  thanks,  thoughtful  one;  but  it  told  me  little 
but  the  mere  facts  and  I  rushed  through  my  work 
to  get  back,  being  anxious  to  see  with  my  own 
eyes  those  two  fine  men  in  their  happiness." 

Madame  Jay-San  made  the  tea  and,  as  they 
sat  sipping  it,  recounted  the  particulars.  At  the 
finish  Marshall  drew  a  long  breath. 

"Great!  What  an  experience  it  must  have  been, 
and  I  suppose,  being  who  they  are,  they  did  not  do 
any  of  the  things  men  of  other  nations  would  do. 
Such,  for  instance,  as  falling  on  each  other's  necks 
in  the  approved  dramatic  style  and  exclaiming  the 
usual  things." 

"No,  they  did  not,  but,  Marshall,  you  should 
see  the  way  they  look  at  each  other." 


SUE    CHUC  193 

"Yes,  I  can  imagine,"  the  good  Doctor's  eyes 
were  suspiciously  misty  as  he  passed  his  cup  to 
be  replenished.  "And  now  let  us  hope  the  'little 
sister'  will  rise  to  the  occasion,"  with  a  chuckle. 

"She  will,"  assented  Madame  Jay-San,  with 
entire  conviction  in  her  voice.  "I  foresee  a  very 
happy  age  for  old  Aunt  Jay-San." 

The  Doctor  chuckled  again.  "I've  not  a  doubt 
you  have  it  all  clearly  drawn  up  in  your  mind  how 
all  of  the  small  great-nieces  and  nephews  are  to  be 
brought  up — yes?" 

Madame  Jay  echoed  his  laugh  and  told  of  the 
afternoon's  scene. 

"Delicious!  I  must  write  it  all  to  my  Mehitable. 
The  dear  little  woman  will  never  forgive  me  for 
not  having  brought  her  along,  she  does  so  love  a 
romance,  bless  her  tender  heart." 

Fun's  difficult  letter  had  been  written,  and  was 
nearly  at  its  destination  when  a  letter  from  Sue 
came. 

Dr.  Ah-Fing  and  Madame  Jay-San  had  stayed 
on  with  him,  waiting  for  the  worst  of  the  thaw 
to  be  over  so  that  they  might  go  back  by  boat, 
feeling  disinclined  for  the  long  and  wearying  over 
land  voyage. 

Dr.  Conrad  had  gone  home,  and  old  Choo-Dan, 
his  heart  lightened  of  its  burden,  found  himself, 
much  to  his  amaze,  getting  well,  found  his  inter- 


194  SUE    CHUC 

\ 

ests  in  life  being  revivified  from  day  to  day,  and 
his  body,  under  the  skillful  care  of  Fun,  showed 
marked  signs  of  its  past  vigor. 

The  two  friends  were  together  daily,  and  found 
the  hours  too  short.  There  were  those  long  years 
to  be  made  up,  and  they  were  constantly  being  sur 
prised  to  find  how  they  had  kept  pace  in  their  pur 
suits,  interests,  studies.  Dr.  Ah-Fing,  with  the 
nobility  of  character  native  to  him,  had  found  it 
possible  to  allay  the  other's  remorse,  to  prove  that, 
in  spite  of  the  sorrow  of  what  he  had  thought  his 
double  loss,  his  life  had  not  been  an  unhappy  or 
useless  one.  And  both  men,  in  their  anxiety  to 
get  to  the  full  the  joy  of  the  present  time,  grew 
younger  in  appearance  and  acquired  a  realization 
of  the  fact  that  they  were  not  as  yet  really  old 
men,  and  might  hope  to  live  many  years. 


CHAPTER  XXI 


ADAME  JAY-SAN,  her  brother, 
and  Fun  were  gathered  in  her  sit 
ting  room  when  the  mail  was  de 
livered,  and  as  the  letters  were 
sorted  she  noticed  that  Fun's  con 
tained  a  thick  letter  from  Sue, 
and  Fun  that  one  of  the  big  square,  pale-gray  en 
velopes  with  Theodocia  Melvin's  handwriting 
upon  it  was  among  Madame  Jay-San's. 

Each  noted  the  other's  discovery  and  laughed. 
."I'll  read  you  mine  if  you'll  read  me  yours," 
announced  Madame  Jay. 
"Agreed." 

"But  we  will  read  them  first  to  ourselves,"  she 
added  hastily,  thinking  of  Theodocia's  ofttimes 
plain  speaking,  and  that,  too,  there  might  be  some 
parts  it  would  be  a  betrayal  of  confidence  to  read 
aloud. 

"Just  what  I  was  thinking,"  teased  Fun,  mer 
riment  in  the  one-time  somber  eyes.  "It's  never 
quite  safe  to  read  aloud  any  letter  of  Theodocia's 
without  a  previous  rearrangement  of  parts." 


196  SUE    CHUC 

Madame  Jay  finished  first  and  sat  covertly  look 
ing  at  her  nephew  as  he  read  his  letter,  her  heart 
glad  to  note  his  happier  expression,  the  clearness 
of  his  eyes  and  skin,  the  look  of  force  and  decision 
that  his  entire  personality  showed  forth.  Then 
her  glance  strayed  to  her  brother,  and  an  amused 
look  came  into  her  eyes  as  she  saw  that  he,  too, 
was  watching  Fun,  a  wistful,  brooding  affection 
in  his  face.  "What  a  couple  of  old  'brooding 
hens1  we  are  over  the  boy,"  she  thought,  uand 
how  young  and  well  Fing  looks;  he  has  lost  that 
stoop  he  had  and  this  has  given  him  a  new  grip 
on  everything." 

Just  then  Fun  came  to  the  end  of  his  letter  and 
said,  looking  up  to  see  the  two  pairs  of  eyes  upon 
him  with  the  look  he  was  beginning  to  watch  for, 
certain  of  its  coming,  but  always,  after  the  lonely 
years,  wanting  to  be  reassured  of  its  presence. 
"I'll  read  first,  if  you  want,  Aunt  Jay.  Your  let 
ter  probably  only  repeats  what  Sue  has  written." 

Madame  Jay  skillfully  restrained  a  smile  at  his 
entire  absorption  in  his  belief  that  Docia  of  course 
had  only  written  of  her  meeting  with  Sue,  and 
slipped  the  letter  into  her  sleeve,  glad  so  easily 
to  get  out  of  the  promise  to  read  it.  Docia  had 
written  of  several  other  things  and  with  her  usual 
thoroughness  of  detail,  and  they  were  not  related 
to  Sue.  "Read  away,"  she  said,  "one  description 


SUE    CHUC  197 

of  that  meeting  doubtless  repeats  the  other,  as 
you  suggest.'* 

Fun  began: 

"Morton  Towers,  January  3Oth. 
"FuN  DEAREST: 

"So  many  things  have  happened  since  I  wrote 
you  three  weeks  ago.  By  the  way,  it's  almost  time 
for  me  to  get  an  answer  to  that,  or  will  be  in 
another  ten  days. 

"I  truly  do  not  know  where  to  begin.  You  will 
want  to  know  each  step,  though,  along  the  path 
that  led  me  to  Morton  Towers,  so  I'll  go  back  to 
the  beginning. 

"My  father  has  been  very  kind,  very  consid 
erate,  and  has  left  me  to  decide  things  for  myself, 
only  stipulating,  in  the  event  of  my  keeping  to  my 
refusal  to  give  up  my  plans  for  China  and  our 
work,  that  I  come  to  him  for  the  intervening  years. 
I  am  not  to  be  forced  to  decide  anything,  just  to 
live  at  the  Towers  on  the  free  days,  where  he 
can  see  me  and  find  the  weight  of  his  loneliness 
more  bearable — I'm  quoting  him.  The  remainder 
of  the  time  I  shall  keep  on  in  town  as  before  at 
my  lectures  and  work.  But  he  would  not  become 
reconciled  to  our  flat,  Chum's  and  mine,  and  did 
not  rest  until  he  had  got  us  moved  into  another, 
and  as  it's  miles  upon  miles  away  from  the  College 
and  hospital,  I  must  have  a  brougham. 


198  SUE    CHUC 

"I  begged  him  to  keep  the  discovery  quiet  be 
cause  I  did  dread  any  newspaper  notoriety,  and 
oh,  Fun  dear,  I  just  could  not  bear  that  those 
cruel  reporters  should  get  hold  of  the  story.  They 
would  spoil  our  lovely  dreams,  yours  and  mine, 
and  make  a  horrid  melodramatic  thing  of  it.  So, 
after  I  had  argued  with  tears  in  my  eyes — he  can't 
bear  tears — he  gave  in  and  it  was  decided  that  I 
was  to  be  invited  to  visit  Morton  Towers.  He 
dug  up — I  beg  pardon,  that  is  some  of  the  boys' 
slang — he  discovered  an  old  maidt  forty-second 
cousin,  and  arranged  for  her  to  come  and  live 
at  the  Towers — it's  pathetic  to  see  how  she  enjoys 
it  all — rand  I  go  to  visit  her,  week-ends. 

"The  fact  of  the  brougham  we  got  over  by  my 
casually  remarking  to  the  group  I  met  at  the  door 
the  first  time  I  used  it,  "There  are  worse  things 
than  having  rich  friends."  And,  too,  I  have  kept 
very  much  to  myself,  so  that  none  of  the  other 
students  know  anything  about  me.  All  of  the  gor- 
geousness  father  insisted  upon  giving  me  in  the 
way  of  clothes  is  only  worn  when  I  am  at  the 
Towers,  and  they  are  very  somberly  gorgeous  be 
cause  of  the  awful  recent  horror. 

"The  boys  had  to  be  let  into  the  secret,  but 
they  feel  so  greatly  the  honor  of  being  told  it  all 
that  they  will  never  breathe  a  word  of  it.  Father 
is  so  interested  in  them  all,  and  I  found  it  hard 


SUE    CHUC  199 

to  keep  him  from  spoiling  things  by  giving  too 
profusely  of  everything  to  them,  but  succeeded 
in  convincing  him  it  was  not  wise,  that  instead 
he  should  settle  a  sum  upon  them  to  be  given  them 
when  they  were  quite  grown,  and  they  are  not  to 
know  anything  of  the  fact  until  such  time.  The 
working-out  they  are  doing  is  too  valuable  for 
them  to  be  taken  chances  with.  Now  father  is  con 
vinced  of  my  right  judgment,  but  it  is  hard  for 
him  to  refrain.  He  is  a  perfect  prince,  Fun,  and 
I  am  finding  out  daily  how  good  a  use  he  puts 
his  money  to,  and  my  point  of  view  in  regard  to 
the  very  rich  is  completely  changed.  Why,  they 
feel  to  a  degree  their  responsibility,  to  a  degree. 
I'm  ashamed  to  think  how  narrow  I  was  in  my 
callow  judgment. 

"Chum  was,  I  think,  very  much  dismayed  and 
unhappy,  for  herself  only,  for  she's  all  interest 
and  joy  for  me,  but  I  quickly  made  her  see  that 
nothing  in  our  life  was  to  be  changed,  and  now  she 
is  reconciled,  or  nearly.  We  do  miss  our  little 
flat,  though  the  new  place  is  an  apartment  and 
ultra-magnificent,  and  we  are  supposed  to  be  poor 
relations  of  Mrs.  Jordan,  who  lives  with  us  and 
— don't  laugh — chaperones  us.  Father  made  me 
see  the  necessity  of  it  and  she's  really  a  dear  and 
does  not  bother  us  at  all,  and  those  awful  things, 
les  convenances,  are  satisfied. 


200  SUE    CHUC 

"I  had  to  tell  the  Settlement  House  people,  but 
they  won't  of  course  mention  a  word  of  it,  under 
standing  the  necessity  for  silence. 

"Every  one  from  now  on  will  be  watching  me, 
I  know,  to  see  how  the  knowledge  of  the  changed 
conditions  will  affect  me,  and  I  know  that  in  their 
secret  hearts  they  one  and  all  expect  me  to  drop 
my  work,  my  plan  of  going  out  to  China  and  all 
my  previous  dreams  and  take  what  Mrs.  Jordan 
terms  'my  proper  position  in  Society/  Sue  Chuc's 
proper  position  in  Society — is  it  not  deliriously 
funny,  that?  I  know  there  will  not  be  any  change 
of  plans  and  that  Sue  Chuc's  proper  place  is  help 
ing  her  big  brother  in  the  work  amongst  the 
people  that  belong  to  them  both,  as  much  as  pos 
sible.  Do  you  know,  Fun,  I'm  not  nearly  so  glad 
to  know  of  my  white  blood  as  I  thought  I  should 
be — why  is  that?  I  do  wish  you  would  occasion 
ally  answer  some  of  my  questions,  by  the  way. 

"There  is  Mrs.  Jordan  calling  me,  I'll  finish 
this  later. 

Four  days  later. 

'Whom  do  you  think  I  was  called  away 
to  see?  Mrs.  Melvin!  Theodocia  Melvin.  I 
went  into  the  reception  room  where  Mrs.  Jordan 
told  me  the  lady  was  waiting  who  wanted  to  see 
me,  who  was  a  friend  of  Mrs.  Holding's,  and  I 
saw  a  very  tall  woman  standing  at  the  window, 


SUE    CHUC  201 

and  when  she  turned  I  knew  her  instantly  and 
evidently  showed  how  delighted  I  was  to  see  her, 
for  she  laughed  and  pulled  me  to  her  and  gave 
me  a  real  dear  kiss.  I  heard  it  said  once  at  Hold 
ings'  that  Docia  never  kissed  people,  so  you  can 
imagine  how  pleased  I  was.  Then  she  made  me 
sit  down  on  the  sofa  next  her  and  asked  me  all 
sorts  of  questions,  not  the  kind  that  mean  just 
curiosity,  you  know,  Fun,  but  the  ones  that  show 
deep  interest — there's  such  a  difference.  And  did 
you  ever  hear  such  a  voice,  Fun?  It's  like  a  big 
organ  at  the  cathedral  when  the  stops  are  in, 
and  her  eyes  and  her  hair  and  her  mouth — oh, 
I  just  sat  and  gloated  over  her  and  felt  a  poor 
little  gray  mouse  of  a  thing,  but  some  way  one 
never  could  feel  envious.  She's  just  Theodocia 
Melvin,  and  there  is  only  one  of  her  kind  in  the 
world. 

"After  she  had  found  out  all  about  me,  even 
to  the  thoughts  I  had  never  even  formulated,  I 
veritably  believe,  we  talked  of  other  things  and 
she  told  me  that  she  had  seen  Casey  and  was 
going  out  the  following  Sunday  to  see  Tonkey-Lo 
and  Bub,  and  asked  me  if  I  would  not  have  din 
ner  with  them  all  at  Tonkey-Lo's.  Casey  had  sent 
me  the  invitation  through  her,  so  I  accepted  it 
with  glee.  Cannot  imagine  anything  more  inter 
esting  than  to  see  her  with  the  boys  about  her, 


202  SUE    CHUC 

and  as  it  was  only  two  days  off  I  delayed  finishing 
this  until  I  could  tell  you  of  it. 

"Went  from  the  Towers  in  time  to  arrive  a 
half  hour  before  the  dinner  (one-thirty)  and  met 
them  all  on  the  road  a  half-mile  from  the  house 
coming  to  meet  me.  I  wish  you  could  have  seen 
them;  they  had  taken  Theodocia  to  show  her  all 
their  haunts  and  were  coming  back  laden  with 
spoils.  The  willows  are  budding  and  they  had 
their  arms  full  of  the  branches.  Mrs.  Melvin 
was  dressed  in  a  gray  corduroy  suit,  rather  short 
skirt,  sack  coat,  gray  Fedora  hat,  dogskin  gloves, 
leggings  and  stout  boots,  and  was  a  picture!  The 
breeze  had  blown  little  tendrils  of  that  wonderful 
spun-silver  hair  about  her  face,  her  color  was  as 
fresh  and  rosy  as  a  good  healthy  girFs,  and  her 
eyes  bright. 

"I'm  not  being  silly  over  her,  am  I,  Fun?  I'm 
not  hypnotized  or  anything  of  that  sort?  If  I  am, 
there  is  consolation  in  the  knowledge  that  every 
one  else  is  too,  even  down  to  old  Tonkey-Lo.  I 
had  heard  that  she  was  lame,  wore  an  artificial 
leg,  and  yet  I  never  noticed  any  limp,  that  is,  a 
bad  one,  and  she  goes  about  very  freely,  from 
what  the  boys  say. 

I  got  out  and  walked  the  half-mile  back  with 
them  and  we  were  called  to  dinner  amost  imme 
diately  upon  our  arrival  at  Tonkey-Lo's.  Casey 


SUE    CHUC  203 

seated  me,  and  the  rest  sat  down.  All  of  the 
spick-spandiest  dishes  were  out,  the  hemstitched 
cloth  and  napkins,  and  the  knives  and  forks  with 
the  carved  handles.  Tonkey-Lo  had  got  up  a 
royal  dinner  and  we  ate  and  talked  and  Mrs. 
Melvin  asked  questions  and  beamed.  The  boys 
began  with  the  best  intentions  to  keep  up  com 
pany  manners,  but  after  a  while  they  all  forgot 
and  were  as  natural  as  if  only  with  me  or  by 
themselves.  That's  another  thing  I  have  noticed 
about  Mrs.  Melvin;  every  one  just  has  to  be  sin 
cere  with  her;  one  knows  she  would  see  through 
any  affectation  and  would  laugh  at  one,  which  is 
different  from  laughing  with  one.  The  first,  I'd 
much  rather  she  did  not  do  to  me. 

After  dinner  we  sat  around  the  fire,  for  it  was 
three  o'clock  by  then,  we  had  stayed  so  long  at  the 
table — and  talked  more.  Mrs.  Melvin  told  us 
about  that  niece  of  hers,  the  one  she  discovered 
six  or  seven  years  ago  in  the  slums  and  took  home 
to  educate  and  oh,  Fun,  but  what  a  dear  girl  she 
must  be.  She  has  gone  on  the  stage — just  had  to 
— she  is  so  talented  Mrs.  Melvin  says  it  would 
have  been  a  crime  to  have  prevented  her,  and 
everyone  believes  that  she  will  be  one  of  the 
great  actresses. 

"The  great  London  surgeon  performed  some 
operation  on  the  foot  that  had  been  injured  and, 


204  SUE    CHUC 

with  the  aid  of  a  scientifically  made  shoe,  the  un- 
evenness  in  her  gait  is  hardly  noticeable.  I'll  tell 
you  all  about  her  some  day,  it's  too  long  for  now, 
but  it  is  thrilling. 

"The  boys  were  so  excited  over  the  news  and 
it  seems  that  Mrs.  Melvin  had  promised  them  all 
a  trip  to  Europe  when  they  had  finished  certain 
school  work,  and  now  it  is  decided  that  they  are 
to  have  three  months  there — a  walking-trip 
through  Germany  and  up  into  Switzerland,  and 
are  to  see  Faith-Hope  play  in  one  of  the  big  pro 
vincial  cities  of  England  before  they  come  back 
in  the  fall  to  America. 

"Mrs.  Melvin  has  given  Faith-Hope  a  big  in 
come,  found  a  suitable  'stage-mother'  for  her  and 
all  that,  and  will  help  her  to  get  on  as  fast  as 
possible,  but  says  that  as  long  as  she  has  flown 
in  the  face  of  family  opinion  and  will  be  an  actress, 
she  must  win  her  laurels  by  her  ability  and  prove 
it  at  each  step.  The  money  is  only  so  that  she 
will  be  free  from  all  the  annoyance,  such  as  even 
the  most  talented  is  troubled  by,  if  she  must  think 
first  and  always  of  the  pounds,  shillings,  and  pence 
of  life. 

"Is  she  not  wise? — I  mean  Theodocia.  She  was 
in  India  when  the  news  reached  her  that  Faith- 
Hope  had  gone  on  the  stage  and  had  to  go  back 


SUE    CHUC  205 

home  to  see  for  herself  as  soon  as  possible  that 
the  girl  was  doing  it  as  she  wanted  her  to  do  it. 

"Oh,  while  I  think  of  it,  I  must  tell  you  how 
she  makes  the  boys  earn  their  joys;  for  instance, 
she  has  ordered  from  Casey  a  set  of  carved  trays, 
furnishing  the  designs  herself.  That  will  take 
up  every  spare  moment  he  can  scrape  up  for  at 
least  two  years,  but  the  price  she  is  paying  for 
them  will  take  him  and  one  of  the  other  boys 
right  from  Havre  to  Genoa  and  back,  pay  every 
thing  for  the  two  months;  Mrs.  Melvin  is  paying 
their  steamer  trip,  and  the  other  will  have  to  make 
his  share  up  to  Casey  by  some  service;  and  Duffy 
is  to  go  to  the  children's  home  Mrs.  Melvin  has 
established,  each  month  for  one  entire  day — the 
post  is  called  Amusement  Bureau' — see  to  the 
library,  to  the  games,  hear  what  complaints  there 
are,  if  any,  and  report  to  headquarters;  order 
new  books  to  replace  the  badly  worn  ones,  new 
games  also,  and  settle  disputes.  She  says  that 
the  man  she  had  hired  to  do  that  for  the  last 
three  years  has  gone  to  California  for  his  lungs. 
I  suppose  she's  sent  him,  don't  you?  and  that 
she  has  no  one  to  put  in  his  place.  And  that's 
the  way  it  goes — she  keeps  them  up  to  the  mark, 
gives  them  self-respect,  and  yet  helps  them  just 
the  same. 

"Bub,  it  seems,  is  frightened  to  death  of  the 


2o6  SUE    CHUC 

ocean  voyage  and  begged  to  stay  behind  with 
Tonkey-Lo,  and  Theodocia  would  not  let  the 
boys  insist  upon  his  going,  says  it's  wrong  to 
constrain  people — it's  unfair. 

"At  five  the  carriage  came  and  I  had  to  go,  but, 
although  I  confess  I  would  rather  have  stayed 
with  them,  I  was  glad  afterward  I  went  home. 
Father  was  so  glad  to  see  me.  He  had  hurried 
back  from  some  important  business  in  Washing 
ton  just  to  be  with  me  over  Sunday.  I  wish  I 
did  not  have  to  go  against  him  some  day;  he  is 
so  kind  and  he  misses  Eleanor  so  much  and 
seems  to  find  comfort  in  me,  but,  Fun  dear,  I 
must,  I  truly  must  go  out  to  China.  Say  yes. 

"SUE." 


CHAPTER  XXII 


HEY  all  smiled  as  the  letter  came 
to  an  end  and  as  usual  it  was 
Madame  Jay  who  spoke  first. 

"Did  it  occur  to  either  of  you 
that  Sue  had  dropped  into  the 
most  matter-of-fact  habit  of  saying 
'father'?  And  this  is  only  after  so  short  a  time. 
No,  Fun,"  as  she  caught  the  expression  on  his 
face,  "I'm  not  inferring  from  that  anything  ad 
versely  affecting  your  plans,  but  only  that  the  dear 
child  is  going  to  find  it  a  more  difficult  thing  than 
she  now  thinks  it  to  decide  against  Mr.  Morton 
when  the  time  comes  for  a  decision.  She's  been 
a  lonely  little  thing  always  with  very  palpably  a 
great  and  rich  nature,  and  with  no  outlet  for  all 
that  affection;  so  if  I  mistake  not  we  shall  see  a 
struggle.  If  you  had  not  already  promised  Mr. 
Morton  in  that  letter,  Fun,  to  be  silent  for  these 
next  two  years,  I  for  one  should  strongly  urge 
you  to  tell  the  girl  of  your  love  for  her,  now." 
Fun  moved  restlessly  in  his  chair.  "Aunt,  I 


208  SUE    CHUC 

did  not  before  dare  avow  it,  but  my  own  impulse 
was  to  do  that  very  thing." 

Madame  Jay-San  rose  quickly.  "Very  well,  do 
it." 

"But  the  letter  must  be  almost  there,  by  now." 

His  aunt  gave  him  one  of  the  affectionately 
superior  glances  she  often  turned  on  her  brother 
and  said:  "Oh,  you  men  of  mighty  brain!  Very 
well,  the  letter  may  be  nearly  there,  but  you  can 
forestall  it  for  all  that  with  a  cablegram — else 
why  are  the  cable  companies  paying  dividends, 
if  not  because  of  the  human  proclivity  of  writ 
ing  on  the  impulse  and  correcting  the  written  mes 
sage  by  a  wire — after  the  impulse  has  died!" 

Fun  rose  with  a  bound,  caught  his  aunt  up  and 
hugged  her,  put  her  down  again  as  though  she 
were  something  very  fragile  and  precious,  and 
walked  quickly  out  of  the  room. 

Madame  Jay-San's  hands  flew  to  her  hair,  pat 
ted  the  soft  heaviness  of  it  into  place,  smiled  at 
her  brother,  who  was  laughing  heartily,  and  pro 
ceeded  to  reread  Theodocia  Melvin's  letter,  re 
marking  before  beginning  it: 

"Fing,  I  am  glad  you  and  I  and  Fun  have 
not  to  be  too  controlled  when  in  the  family  cir 
cle,  and  that  we  have  not  to  be  we  can  thank 
our  foreign  blood.  Fancy  a  dignified  and  stately 


SUE    CHUC  209 

Chinese  gentleman  doing  what  Fun  just  did — 
the  very  heavens  would  fall  at  the  sight." 

An  hour  after,  Fun  returned. 

"Well?"  inquired  the  aunt. 

"It's  off;  I  saw  the  messenger  started." 

"Good — what  did  you  say?" 

Fun  handed  her  a  copy  of  the  cable,  at  the 
length  of  which  his  aunt  elevated  her  brows,  and, 
after  reading  it,  passed  it  to  her  brother. 

"It's  very  good,  Fun;  I  can  see,  however,  that 
if  there  were  many  to  be  sent,  those  dividends 
your  aunt  referred  to  would  increase. 

"And  now,  my  son,  as  you  have  made  your 
decision,  I  am  going  to  tell  you  something  you 
do  not  know,  so  that  when  you  write  your  next 
letter  to  Mr.  Morton  you  can  word  it  differ 
ently.  I  am  a  very  wealthy  man,  and  you  as  my 
heir  will,  of  course,  inherit  the  money. 

"You  did  not  think  that,  no?  Why  should 
you,  for  you  have  only  had  the  simple  way  your 
aunt  and  I  live  to  judge  by.  I  had  intended  when 
I  thought  myself  without  an  heir  to  leave  it  all 
to  further  the  work,  but  you  will  be  able  to  do 
that  with  a  part  of  it  and  will,  I  feel  certain,  do 
so.  The  remainder  you  must  use  to  bring  up 
all  of  those  great-nieces  and  nephews  in  the  way 
they  should  go,  that  your  aunt  feels  so  sure  will 
eventually  arrive  upon  the  scene." 


210  SUE    CHUC 

"Now,  boy  dear/'  interrupted  Madame  Jay- 
San,  "sit  down  and  write  to  our  Sue  and  to  Mr. 
Morton.  I'll  take  your  father  into  my  sitting 
room.  I  want  to  discuss  some  details  with  him, 
and  in  a  couple  of  days  more  we  must  go  north 
ward.  The  water  is  rising  in  the  Tung-Sting  and 
the  boats  running  again,  and  the  ice  will  be  gone 
up  north  by  the  time  we  get  there." 

Six  weeks  had  gone  by.  Sue  had  written  twice, 
but  there  had  not  been  time  for  the  answer  to 
his  letter  to  arrive,  when  one  day,  as  Fun  stopped 
in  at  the  hospital  toward  evening,  on  the  way 
home,  he  found  a  stranger  in  his  private  office, 
who  rose  to  greet  him  at  the  opening  of  the  door. 

"Doctor  Ah-Fun?"  he  inquired. 

"Yes,  what  can  I  do  for  you?"  Fun's  manner 
showed  nothing  of  the  surprise  he  felt.  It  was 
an  unusual  thing  to  see  a  foreigner  in  that  place, 
but  occasionally  some  missionary  stopped  en  route 
to  or  from  the  North. 

"I  am  Mr.  Morton,"  the  other  answered,  "and" 
— looking  at  him  keenly — "after  we  have  had 
some  conversation  I  can  better  answer  that  casual 
question  of  yours." 

Fun's  immensely  tall  figure  straightened  to  its 
uttermost  and  the  color  flushed  his  face.  The 
other  man  watching  him  thought,  "What  a  per- 


SUE    CHUC  211 

feet  god  of  a  man  he  is !"  and  sighed.  This  was 
no  weakling  to  be  overawed  or  talked  out  of  a 
heart's  desire. 

After  the  first  shock  of  surprise  was  over,  Fun 
seated  his  guest  and  himself  took  his  usual  place 
before  his  desk,  and  the  older  man  recognized 
with  a  wry  smih  how  like  his  own  tactics  that 
placing  of  the  stranger  or  the  one  to  be  inter 
viewed  in  the  light,  while  he,  the  interviewer,  sat 
in  shadow.  Fun  remarked  the  smile,  and  sensed 
the  meaning  of  it,  and,  with  the  charm  of  manner 
so  entirely  natural  to  him,  said: 

"Pardon  me,  Mr.  Morton,  that  was  mere  force 
of  habit.  As  a  physician  I  have  to  do  that,  but 
between  us  there  is  no  need,"  and  he  turned  his 
face  into  the  full  light  from  the  window.  uYou 
have  a  perfect  right  to  see  me  clearly  while  we 
are  talking." 

Mr.  Morton  looked  at  him  curiously,  won  in 
spite  of  himself  by  the  sincerity  of  the  man's  na 
ture  so  apparent,  and  his  feeling  underwent  a 
change  which  was  evident  to  himself  in  his  open 
ing  sentence. 

Long  the  two  talked,  the  afternoon  lengthened 
into  twilight  and  that  into  night,  and  long  after 
the  lamps  had  been  lighted  they  talked.  Finally 
they  both  rose  and  the  older  man  said : 

"You've  convinced  me,  and  against  every  one 


212  SUE    CHUC 

of  my  convictions.  It's  a  blow,  I  must  admit,  and 
I  see  all  my  castles  tumbling  about  my  feet." 

Fun's  face  was  grave,  almost  solemn,  and  its 
voice,  with  its  fine,  ringing  quality,  infinitely  gen 
tle  as  he  said: 

"I  realize  that,  Mr.  Morton,  and  all  I  can  say 
is  that  I  will  cherish  Sue  as  my  dearer  self  if  she 
answers  me  that  she  will  come  to  me." 

"She'll  come.  I  know  now  what  a  fool  I  was 
to  think  I  had  the  ghost  of  a  chance  against  you," 
and  there  was  reluctant  admiration  in  his  eyes 
for  the  man  who  had  fought  and  gained  his  fight 
against  such  odds.  For  Fun  had  kept  back  not 
one  sullied  day  of  his  life's  history,  but  had  opened 
the  book  of  his  life  for  the  other  to  read. 

"I  know  when  I  am  beaten.  And  now,  will 
you  ask  me  home  for  the  night  and  the  two  days 
until  my  boat  leaves  ?  There  is,  I  find,  no  foreign 
hotel  in  this  city.  I  won't  be  a  nuisance,"  he 
added  hastily,  "and  I  won't  do  the  martyr  act — 
that's  not  my  way.  But  I  should  like  to  see  more 
of  you  and  have  a  chance  to  talk  with  you  of  many 
things." 

"Indeed  I  will,  Mr.  Morton,  and  with  very 
deep  pleasure.  You  will  not  interfere  in  any  way 
with  my  work.  I  have  several  very  clever  assist 
ants  and  for  the  moment  no  serious  operation 


is  on." 


SUE    CHUG  213 

True  to  his  word,   Mr.  Morton  assumed  no 
martyred  air,  but  accepted  the  result  with  at  least 
outward  composure,  and  the  two  days  that  the 
men  spent  in  each  other's  society,  in  talks,  walks 
about  the  big  city,  almost  hourly  companionship, 
were  mutually  pleasant,  and  the  handclasp  they 
exchanged  at  separating  was  cordial  as  was  the 
expression  of  their  eyes  friendly.    And  as  the  boat 
got  under  way,   the  father  stood  by  the  railing 
watching  the  receding  shore  and  the  tall  figure  of 
the  younger  man  with  a  curiously  mixed  feeling 
in  which  mingled  resentment  at  the  trick  Fate  had 
played  him,  in  only  giving  him  the  small  daugh 
ter  to  again  snatch  her  away  from  him,  admiration 
for  Fun's  person  and  qualities  that  had  almost  a 
note  of  pride  of  posession  in  it,  a  growing  lik 
ing  and  a  sorrow  that  so  great  a  distance  must 
separate  him  from  the  fine  manly  figure.     "Well, 
well,"  he  said,  with  a  sigh  as  he  finally  turned 
away  to  his  cabin,  a  mist  that  was  not  wholly  be 
cause  of  the  distance  dimming  his  vision,  "it's  a 
damn  topsy-turvy  old  world,  any  way  you  look 
at  it." 

Sue's  letter  came  when  Fun  had  almost  begun 
to  despair,  and  assured  and  reassured  him  as  to 
her  love  for  him;  her  entire  gladness  to  be  the 
"little  wife"  instead  of  little  sister;  of  her  joy  in 
knowing  that  the  new  father  and  aunt  wanted  her 


214  SUE    CHUC 

and  were  prepared  to  welcome  her  with  love,  and 
only  at  the  very  last  of  the  letter  did  the  little 
wail  go  up  of  "Oh,  Fun,  dearest,  dearest,  these 
two  years  longer  are  going  to  be  so  century-long, 
and  what,  oh  what  am  I  to  say  to  poor  father? 
I  shall  seem  so  lacking  in  consideration  after 
all  of  his  kindness  and  the  proofs  of  his  affection 
for  me.  But  my  dear,  my  dear,  you  have  been 
my  whole  life  for  so  many  years,  and  he,  the 
dear  man  that  he  is,  has  been  for  so  short  a  time 
anything  to  me.  I  could  not  give  you  up.  Fun 
dear,  after  that  nice  doctor  woman  returns  to 
China  will  you  come  on  to  see  me  before  you  join 
your  father  in  Peking?  But  I  know  you  will." 

The  letter  was  too  sacred  to  Fun  to  be  shown, 
so  he  only  sent  excerpts  from  it  to  his  father  and 
aunt,  with  an  account  of  Mr.  Morton's  visit — 
and  with  added  zest  turned  to  his  work. 

The  spring  had  ripened  into  summer,  the  sum 
mer  into  fall  and  the  anniversary  of  his  arrival 
was  nearly  at  hand.  He  tried  to  put  away  from 
him,  when  it  came,  the  inclination  to  dwell  on  the 
thought  of  the  intervening  months  between  the 
present  and  Dr.  Ellen's  return,  and  drove  him 
self  as  though  his  mind  were  the  engineer  and  his 
body  the  engine,  so  that  by  Christmas  he  was  posi 
tively  lean. 

Kue-Bow  had  slipped  away   from  the  North 


SUE    CHUG  215 

during  one  of  Madame  Jay's  absences  in  the  in 
terior,  and  came  back  home.  Her  look  of  glad 
ness  when  she  came  to  the  hospital  and  met  Fun 
was  a  revelation  and  his  heart  sank  at  the  sight, 
but  he  greeted  her  kindly  and  forced  himself  to 
a  something  of  aloofness  foreign  to  him,  and 
quickly  got  away. 

That  night,  after  his  lonely  dinner,  which 
seemed,  for  some  reason,  unaccountably  dreary, 
after  trying  without  success  to  settle  to  his  usually 
absorbing  work  and  finding  it  impossible,  with  his 
nerves  taut  as  fiddle  strings,  his  temples  throbbing, 
and  his  pulses  accelerated,  he  paced  up  and  down 
his  veranda,  up  and  down  through  the  seemingly 
endless  night.  At  intervals  the  small  devil  that 
he  had  thought  buried  suggested  to  him  that  he 
was  a  fool — he  was  not  a  man — that  all  men  were 
creatures  of  the  flesh,  not  spiritual  beings,  that 
a  man  had  no  more  right  to  stifle  the  cries  of  the 
flesh  than  he  had  to  kill  any  other  impulse,  and 
over  and  over  the  same  old  line  of  reasoning  his 
weary  brain  toiled,  and  the  first  flush  of  the  break 
ing  day  lighted  up  his  pallid,  drawn,  and  almost 
harshly  marked  face,  giving  him  the  look  of  a 
man  whose  force  was  almost  all  spent. 

He  stood  holding  on  to  the  railing  and  looking 
down  over  the  huddled  roofs  of  the  city,  out  be 
yond  the  great  plain,  as  the  sun  rose  in  one  su- 


216  SUE   CHUC 

preme  burst  of  glory,  bathing  every  object  in  its 
health-giving,  cleansing  rays. 

The  fight  was  won,  his  heart  was  once  again 
at  peace,  and  he  sank  down  before  his  desk,  and 
on  the  impulse  wrote  to  Sue,  telling  her  honestly, 
openly,  without  anything  of  false  shame  or  of  the 
mock  modesty  that  is  most  often  pruriency,  of  his 
soul's  fight  against  his  flesh's  cry,  and  asked  her 
to  promise  him  to  marry  him  when  he  should 
come  on  at  the  end  of  the  time  set.  As  lover  to 
lover,  as  husband  to  wife,  as  physician  to  physi 
cian,  he  wrote,  and  did  not  realize  how  strong  a 
cry  for  help  it  was,  the  cry  of  the  strong  man  who 
yet  is  conscious  of  his  weakness,  of  the  courageous 
man  who  yet  knows  his  vulnerable  spot,  of  the 
man  of  fine,  clean  soul  who  desires  above  all  things 
to  keep  friends  with  his  true  self,  that  self  that 
we  each  have  that,  in  the  stress  and  strain  of  living, 
gets  at  times  pushed  back  and  covered  over  deep 
with  the  things  of  the  day. 

Sue  Chuc  took  a  day  to  think  over  the  extraor 
dinary  letter  she  had  received  from  Fun,  during 
which  time  the  young  man's  magnificent  truthful 
ness,  inherent  nobility,  and  trust  in  her  equal  pow 
ers  of  understanding  made  their  appeal  to  her, 
filled  her  heart  with  thanksgiving,  with  a  glow 
of  pride  in  him,  and  with  added  love.  Then, 
after  an  almost  sleepless  night,  she  dressed  and 


SUE   CHUC  217 

went  out  to  send  a  cablegram  in  answer  to  the 
letter's  cry  for  help.  It  was  very  brief,  prob 
ably  none  that  the  wires  had  ever  carried  had  more 
of  the  essence  of  living  in  it,  and  the  words  were 
only: 

"With  all  my  heart,  at  any  time.  SUE." 

Then  she  went  home  and  broke  the  news  to  her 
chum,  Stella.  "I'm  not  going  to  finish  my  course, 
Stella,"  and,  as  the  other  looked  up,  startled,  from 
her  absorption  in  a  medical  book  which  had  been 
ripped  from  its  binding  and  separated  into  por 
tions  easy  of  handling  and  capable  of  being  car 
ried  and  studied  on  trains  and  cars,  or  propped  up 
against  sugar  basins  or  marmalade  pots  at  meals, 
she  added,  "I  am  going  to  marry  Ah-day-Fun 
when  he  comes  on  in  the  spring." 

Stella's  round  eyes  opened  to  their  fullest  ex 
tent  and  her  lower  lid  drooped. 

"Don't  look  so  astounded  and  woe-begone, 
Stella,  what  does  it  mean  to  me,  that  silly  diploma, 
anyway?  I'm  going  to  help  my  Fun  just  the 
same  if  not  in  the  same  way,  and  that  dear  old 
Dr.  Ah-Fing  and  that  lovely  old  Aunt  Jay-San 
are  going  to  be  happier  than  they  have  ever  been. 
By  the  way,"  she  added,  glancing  at  the  dismem 
bered  medical  book,  "you  will  certainly  ruin  your 
eyes  and  incidentally  your  digestion  if  you  study 
during  meals  all  the  time  and  read  on  the  cars." 


218  SUE    CHUC 

Then,  with  a  complete  change  of  tone,  she  said, 
"Stella,  what  shall  I  tell  my  father?" 

"Yes — what  shall  you?"  answered  the  other. 

"I  don't  know  anything  better  than  the  truth, 
but  that  won't  make  it  easier  for  him.  I  wonder 
when  he  will  return,  and  where  he's  been — Eu 
rope,  I  suppose;  have  not  had  a  word  from  him 
in  six  weeks." 


CHAPTER  XXIII 


HAT  week-end  Sue  went  to  the 
Towers  and  on  Sunday  walked 
over  to  see  the  boys,  whom  she 
found  busy  over  atlases  and  Baede 
kers.  Already  they  were  mapping 
out  their  prospective  trips  of  the 
next  summer  and  studying  everything  they  could 
get  hold  of  in  reference  to  the  arts,  crafts,  and 
horticulture  of  the  countries  they  were  to  visit. 

"We're  going  to  see  all  of  the  botanical  gardens 
and  Mrs.  Theodocia  says  she  will  get  us  letters  to 
all  of  the  places  where  there  are  experimental  sta 
tions  or  big  gardens  and  nurseries,"  announced 
Duffy,  lifting  his  near-sighted,  bespectacled  eyes 
from  the  pages  of  a  huge  tome  on  horticulture. 

"And  say,  Sue,  won't  it  be  nuts  to  see  all  the 
galleries  of  statuary  and  all  the  carvings — wish 
they'd  let  a  fellow  get  up  close  to  things,  but  they 
keep  'em  railed  off  if  they're  worth  much,  and 
you're  not  allowed  to  so  much  as  put  a  finger  on 


'em." 


'Say,  Sue,"  the  budding  architect  said,  "did  you 


220  SUE    CHUC 

know  there's  to  be  a  big  competitive  exhibition  of 
architectural  sketches  and  plans  in  Dusseldorf, 
just  the  time  we'll  be  there?  Gee!  won't  it  be 
bully,  but,"  with  a  sigh,  "how  I  wish  we  could  cut 
over  to  Greece.  I'd  give  anything  to  see  Athens 
— not  the  modern,"  he  added  in  a  tone  of  disgust, 
"if  you  want  to  get  a  real  jolt  just  look  at  these," 
and  he  pushed  disdainfully  toward  her  a  heap  of 
photographs  of  that  city  of  to-day,  and  as  she 
took  them  up  to  look  over  he  said  mournfully: 

"Just  think  of  electric  trains  and  big  hotels 
and  shops  with  the  latest  novelties  in  a  place  with 
the  history  of  Athens — it's  enough  to  make  you 


want  to  swear." 


"Well,  you  got  to  keep  on  moving,"  said  Ca 
sey,  "else  you're  a  deader  sure,  and  you  can  bet 
your  last  quarter  that  when  old  Athens  was  sport 
ing  all  the  things  you're  so  looney  over,  she  was 
just  as  up-to-date  in  'em  as  we  are  in  our  way 
to-day." 

A  grunt  was  the  only  answer  he  obtained  from 
the  embryonic  architect  with  classical  ideals. 

Tonkey-Lo  beckoned  to  Sue  to  come  to  the 
kitchen,  and,  making  an  excuse  that  she  wanted 
to  consult  him  on  the  ingredients  of  a  sauce,  Sue 
shortly  left  the  sitting  room  and  went  out  into 
the  kitchen.  Tonkey-Lo  carefully  closed  the  door, 
and,  motioning  her  to  the  farthest  window,  pulled 


SUE    CHUC  221 

out  a  chair  for  her,  and  when  she  was  seated 
stood  before  her  and  said: 

"Where're  your  father?" 

"I  don't  know,  Tonkey-Lo;  he  only  left  me 
word  that  he  was  going  away  on  important  busi 
ness  and  would  not  be  home  for  eight  or  ten 
weeks,  but  I  think  he  must  have  gone  to  Europe. 
But  it's  queer  he  has  not  written." 

Tonkey-Lo  extracted  from  the  mysterious  depths 
of  his  coat  a  yellow  paper,  opened  it,  and  held  it 
out  to  her. 

She  took  it  and  read  the  sentence  written  on  it 
in  Chinese  text  and  colored  up  into  the  very  roots 
of  her  hair.  "Oh,  Tonkey-Lo,  he's  in  China." 

Tonkey-Lo  nodded,  his  kind  old  eyes  wrinkling 
at  the  corners. 

"Yep,  he  go  see  that  big  man  Doctor  Fun;  like 
him  velly  good ;  tlink  him  velly  good  husband  for 
liT  girl  Sue-Chuc;  go  get  him  mallied  with  her 
plitty  soon,  an'  some  day  we  all,  Bub  an'  me,  too, 
we  gotsche  go  live  China,  long  him  an'  you." 

This  was  a  long  speech,  and  Sue  sat  listening 
with  her  eyes  filled  with  tears  of  pleasure.  Then 
it  was  all  right;  her  father  had  seen  Fun  and  had 
liked  him ;  she  could  be  happy  without  having  that 
happiness  marred  by  the  thought  of  a  lonely  man 
in  a  huge  empty  house  many  thousands  of  miles 
away. 


222  SUE    CHUC 

Then  the  absurdity  of  Tonkey-Lo's  supposition 
that  her  busy  father  would  give  up  his  life,  with 
its  manifold  interests,  and  go  to  live  in  China 
struck  her,  and  the  joy  died  out  of  her  face.  Ton- 
key-Lo,  watching  her,  saw  the  change. 

"Wat's  er  matter — tlink  he  no  go — too  busy 
Amelican  man?" 

Sue  nodded. 

"Oh,  that's  all  light.  You  see,  he  like  China 
plenty — can  be  just  same  busy  there,  and  new  kinds 
of  business  plenty  will  like  um." 

"Oh,  Tonkey-Lot  do  you  really  think  so?" 
Since  she  was  known  to  be  the  daughter  of  his  old 
master,  Tonkey-Lo  had  almost  never  addressed 
her  in  Chinese,  as  had  been  his  wont  up  to  that 
time,  but  always  in  his  best  pidgin  English,  nor 
would  he  allow  her  to  speak  to  him  in  Chinese, 
much  to  her  amusement.  And  now  she  said,  mis 
chief  in  her  eyes  again: 

"I  suppose  when  we  get  to  China  I  shall  be  al 
lowed  to  speak  Chinese,  Tonkey-Lo,  and  you  will 
drop  your  English?" 

Tonkey-Lo's  face  was  quite  impassive  as  he  an 
swered,  "Mebbe,  mebbe." 

"I'm  awfully  obliged  to  you,  Tonkey-Lo,  for 
showing  me  the  dispatch.  What  is  it,  a  copy 
done  into  Chinese?  How  did  you  get  it?" 

But  Tonkey-Lo  had  gone  about  his  work,  so 


SUE    CHUC  223 

Sue  went  back  to  the  boys  and  later  on  told  them 
her  news.  It  was  received  in  dead  silence,  and 
she  looked  the  surprise  she  felt. 

"Oh,  say,  Sue;  sure  did  you  think  we  were  so 
silly  we  didn't  know  all  along?" 

"Know  all  along?"  she  repeated. 

"Yes,  cert — we  knew  just  from  the  first  you  and 
the  big  Doctor  was  just  up  to  your  eyebrows  in 
love  with  each  other." 

"Well,  I  must  say!"  But  what  she  must  say 
was  never  said,  for  the  ridiculousness  of  the  thing 
overcame  her.  Here  was  she,  only  recently  aware 
of  the  nature  of  her  feelings  toward  the  "big 
brother"  and  here  were  these  sharp-eyed,  sharp- 
sensed  young  boys  with  a  conviction  of  it  "almost 
from  the  first." 

Casey  added  gravely:  "We're  awfully  glad, 
Sue.  He's  a  good  sort,  all  rightt  and  so  are  you." 

Sue  sat  back  in  her  chair  and  laughed  until  Ton- 
key-Lo  poked  his  head  into  the  doorway  to  see 
what  was  the  matter  and  called  them  to  tea. 


CHAPTER  XXIV 


RS.  MELVIN  was  told,  and  Mary 
Tobin  and  a  few  of  the  others; 
and  after  Mr.  Morton  had  re 
turned  and  he  and  Sue  had  talked 
it  out,  Sue  went  back  to  her  lec 
tures  and  study  with  renewed  vim, 
meaning  to  get  in  as  much  practical  work  as  pos 
sible  before  she  should  leave.  And  the  months 
passed. 

She  did  not  see  Dr.  Ray,  as  the  Doctor  returned 
to  China  by  another  route.  The  boys  left  for 
Europe  and  Sue  and  her  father,  Tonkey-Lo  and 
Bub  went  to  see  them  off.  And  at  last  came  the 
day  when,  as  Sue  rose  in  the  morning,  her  heart 
sang,  "To-day,  to-day,"  and  through  the  hours 
she  counted  the  minutes. 

She  had  changed  her  mind  a  dozen  times  about 
whether  or  not  she  should  go  to  meet  the  train 
and  at  last  decided  not  to,  and  sent  word  to  her 
father  to  that  effect. 

She  had  tried  on  several  dresses,  finding  each 
one  not  the  one,  and  at  last  settled  upon  a  simple 


SUE    CHUC  22$ 

dark  blue  with  a  fluff  of  creamy  chiffon  at  the 
throat,  her  only  ornament  a  huge,  many-faceted 
sapphire,  pendant  from  a  fine  chain  at  her  throat. 

"Oh,  I  wish  I  were  pretty,"  she  moaned,  as  she 
looked  at  herself  in  the  glass.  "You  ugly  little 
mite  of  a  thing,"  she  apostrophized  her  reflection, 
"how  did  you  ever  come  to  make  any  impression 
on  that  splendid  man?"  Then  she  laughed,  she 
had  remembered  what  a  girl  had  once  said  to  her: 

"There  is  one  consolation  for  the  ugly  woman : 
when  she  captures  the  heart  of  a  man,  she's  apt 
to  keep  it,  for  she's  not  apt  to  change,  whereas 
the  pretty  woman  always  goes  off  in  her  looks,  and 
it's  dreadfully  noticeable." 

She  walked  restlessly  up  and  down  her  sitting 
room  listening  to  every  sound.  Finally,  with  a 
glance  at  the  clock  on  her  desk,  she  went  to  the 
window  and  stepped  through  its  opened  doors  to 
the  balcony  and  looked  down  to  the  street. 

A  brougham  had  drawn  up  to  the  curb,  and 
under  the  "glare  of  the  great  arc  lamp  in  front 
of  the  apartment  house  she  saw  her  father's  figure 
and  his  face  as  he  lifted  it  toward  her  balcony. 
Her  heart  seemed  to  stop  beating,  and  her  hands 
grew  cold  for  a  second,  thinking  him  alone,  then 
she  saw  a  second  figure  and  from  its  height  and 
carriage  knew  it  for  Fun's.  His  face  was  toward 


226  SUE    CHUC 

the  entrance  and  she  could  not  see  it,  but  she  no 
ticed  that  he  was  dressed  in  English  clothes. 

At  the  door  of  their  private  hall  she  met  him 
and  he  caught  up  the  small,  slight  figure  and  held 
her  close  to  him,  whispering: 

"My  little  Sue,  my  little  Sue." 

Quietly  they  were  married  in  the  little  study  at 
the  Settlement  House.  There  had  been  no  news 
paper  talk,  owing  to  the  care  that  had  been  taken 
at  the  time  of  her  decision  to  go  on  with  her  work 
and  study  instead  of  going  to  the  Towers  as  its 
mistress,  and  the  few  friends  had  kept  the  secret 
well. 

The  study  had  been  banked  with  flowers,  and 
the  lights  under  their  shades  shone  softly  upon 
the  little  group  assembled. 

Dr.  Dean  had  read  the  simple  and  beautiful 
service,  her  father  had  placed  her  hand  in  the 
hand  of  the  man  whose  life  was  to  be  her  life,  the 
benediction  had  been  spoken,  and  then  Sue  had 
turned  her  radiant  face  to  them  all  and  received 
their  congratulations. 

Later  they  sat  down  to  supper  in  the  Dean's 
pretty  dining-room  and  at  ten  o'clock  Sue  said 
good-bye  to  them  all  and  they  two  went  to  the 
dock  where  lay  the  big  steamer  that  was  to  bear 
them  to  Europe,  where,  after  a  few  months  of 


SUE   CHUC  227 

travel,  they  would  again  embark,  this  time  for 
China. 

Old  Tonkey-Lo  had  gone  down  to  the  steamer 
and  was  awaiting  them. 

"Don't  you  wolly,"  he  said  to  Sue  earnestly. 
"You  see,  I  tell  you  ploper;  one  year,  mebbe  KT 
more,  mebbe  liT  less — Mr.  Morton,  liT  Bub,  an' 
ole  Tonkey-Lo  come  out  to  see  you."  And  Bub, 
big-eyed  and  impressed,  kissed  her  shyly  and  said, 
nodding  his  curly  head  gravely : 

"Yes,  we  will,  sure.  Tonkey-Lo  says  I  won't 
be  scared  at  the  water  when  he's  along,  and  I  guess 
I  won't.  Anyway,  I'm  coming,  too." 

Sue  hugged  him. 

Shyly  he  looked  up  at  the  tall  man  and  held  out 
his  slender  brown  hand,  saying  in  his  charming 
way:  "We're  awfully  glad  you  got  her,  Doctor 
Fun,  and  when  you  and  Sue  see  our  boys  over  in 
Europe  they  will  tell  you  so,  too.  Good-by." 

Mr.  Morton  at  the  last  minute  appeared,  and, 
after  kissing  his  daughter  tenderly  and  shaking 
hands  cordially  with  Fun,  left  again  almost  with 
out  a  word,  evidently  too  much  moved  for  speech. 

But  next  day,  after  the  vessel's  sailing,  the 
steward  brought  Sue  a  box  of  flowers  with  a  little 
note  amid  the  blossoms,  and  when  they  arrived  in 
London  the  bank  sent  her  word  that  the  sum  of 
twenty  thousand  pounds  was  there  to  her  credit. 


228  SUE    CHUC 

The  months  had  gone  by.  Sue  was  weary  of 
travel  and  wanted  to  get  to  her  new  home.  It  had 
been  a  beautiful  time  for  them,  and  day  by  day 
they  realized  the  depth  of  their  love  and  their 
happiness.  They  had  seen  the  boys  in  Geneva, 
had  two  days  with  them,  and  Fun  and  they  im 
mediately  struck  up  a  friendship.  He  told  them 
that  when  they  next  took  a  vacation  they  must 
come  to  them  in  China,  there  was  much  to  be 
learned  there  in  the  subjects  they  were  taking  up. 

"If  I'm  not  greatly  mistaken,  that  wonderful 
old  country  is  going  to  be  the  seat  of  the  greatest 
changes  that  the  next  quarter  of  a  century  will 
see.  You  know  the  old  proverb  of  the  slow-mov 
ing  of  great  bodies,  and  how  they  gather  mo 
mentum  in  moving  until  they  overwhelm  all  ob 
jects  in  their  path.  That  is  going  to  be  the  case 
when  China  moves,  so  there  will  be  big  oppor 
tunities  for  intelligent,  active  men." 

And  the  boys  promised. 

"It  will  be  in  the  Fall,  four  years  from  now, 
that  we  will  come,  won't  we,  fellows?" 

"Good!  I  shall  keep  you  to  your  promise," 
and  with  many  good-bys  and  much  waving  of  edel 
weiss-decorated  caps  they  parted. 

On  the  steamer  going  out,  Sue  and  Fun  had 
much  merriment  over  their  plans.  They  would 
have  been  married  six  months  by  the  time  they 


SUE   CHUC  229 

reached  China,  and  now  it  seemed  to  them  that 
they  had  always  been  married — not  that  the  hap 
piness  lessened,  but  that  as  the  time  went  they 
grew  into  a  complete  knowledge  of  the  very  re 
markable  similarity  of  their  tastes,  so  that  the 
united  feeling  became  the  strongest  one  they  pos 
sessed. 

At  Woo-Sung,  before  they  left  the  steamer  for 
the  private  launch  that  had  been  sent  to  meet 
them  and  carry  them  to  Shanghai,  they  had 
changed  from  the  Occidental  dress  to  the  Chi 
nese,  and  Sue,  with  her  hair  dressed  in  native 
fashion  and  her  coat  and  trousers  of  finest  and 
richest  satin,  with  delicate  embroidery  on  bands 
at  neck  and  sleeves,  her  feet  in  beautifully  made 
shoes,  looked,  as  Fun  thought,  the  dearest  wee 
bit  of  femininity  he  had  ever  seen,  and,  as  he 
helped  her  down  the  steep  stairs  from  the  ship's 
deck  to  the  deck  of  the  bobbing,  dancing  little 
launch,  his  heart  was  very  tender,  very  thankful, 
and  he  looked  forward  with  eagerness  to  present 
ing  the  little  wife  to  his  father  and  Aunt  Jay. 

At  the  dock  were  waiting  Dr.  Ah-Fing  and  his 
sister,  and  in  the  dusk  of  the  late  autumn  day  the 
rather  demonstrative  welcome  given  and  returned 
was  not  noticed.  Only  Madame  Jay's  sharp  eyes 
had  not  failed  to  note  that  before  many  months 
her  arms  would  be  filled,  and  it  was  with  a  kiss 


230  SUE   CHUC 

that  carried  much  of  gladness,  thankfulness,  and 
affection  for  little  Sue  that  she  welcomed  her,  and 
Sue,  who  had  always  wanted  just  what  she  felt  the 
other  was  ready  and  wanting  to  give,  returned  it 
in  full. 

The  lights  were  shining  from  the  windows  of 
the  club,  the  big  Hongs,  and  along  the  street  as 
the  carriage  turned  from  the  broad  street  and, 
rapidly  traversing  the  busy  and  crowded  Road, 
took  its  way  out  into  the  country. 


